Revelations
by Fenris1872
Summary: Discontinued from my other profile.
1. Chapter 1

Konohagakure no Sato. Within the continent known as the elemental nations that name was associated with power, both political and military. It was one of the many ninja villages that dominated the landmass.

However Konoha was considered one of the five main hidden villages, alongside Kirigakure, Kumogakure, Iwagakure and Sunagakure. The reason for Konoha's place among those five was not it's raw power like Kumogakure, it was not the number of ninja's within its wall like Iwagakure, it was not it's master assassins like Kirigakure nor it's skilled ninja like Sunagakure, no, Konohagakure no sato was famous for one thing, it's unrivalled teamwork.

That is not to say it didn't have what the other villages had, however the part that cemented its place as one of the strongest five villages was the teamwork that its shinobi displayed.

It was because of that reason the graduation exam used to decide which children were skilled enough to become ninja's and which weren't was immediately followed by a separate test that was used to decide which teams could work together and therefore survive on the field as opposed to the classroom.

Uzumaki Naruto, within Konoha that name was immediately associated with several words, mainly prankster, demon, failure and murderer. He had known for years why he was called a prankster and a failure, however it had only been three nights ago that he had discovered the reason behind demon and murderer.

He had trusted his instructor at the academy and in the dead of night, he had broken into the village leaders office and found a large scroll marked 'forbidden'. His sensei had told him about the scroll and when he had asked why it was forbidden, the man had told him that a genuine forbidden scroll wouldn't advertise itself like that and that the scroll he was going to be stealing was just a prop for the graduation exam.

Naruto had listened to the man and proceeded to steal the scroll for the makeup exam he had been told about.

However that didn't work.

He had been saved by his other sensei when he discovered there was no makeup exam and the man he had trusted was a traitor. It was at that point he discovered the truth. Sealed within his gut was a monster of unimaginable power, one that had nearly crushed the village twelve years ago, it's name, the Kyūbi no kitsune.

The shock of the revelation was immense, all he had been capable of doing was staring into space before fleeing the scene as his mind was overcome with grief. But he had been saved. Iruka-sensei had managed to guide him out of his darkness and in doing so, allowed him to understand the truth of the situation… he had been entrusted with a great burden that the Yondaime Hokage had for some reason or another, believed he could handle, his hero had believed in him and he would be damned if he was just going to give in.

Defeating his treacherous sensei had probably been the easiest part of that night, the man had simply been overwhelmed by the jutsu he had learned from the scroll, then again fighting a sea of orange clad blonds wasn't the easiest thing to do for someone that lacked skills of their own.

It was after he had defeated the teacher turned traitor that it had happened. He had received his hitae-ate, the mark that he had graduated the academy.

He had been so ecstatic over the piece of cloth with the metal plaque, he was finally a ninja, he had thought that would be enough.

However yesterday he had discovered that there was still one more test to go, one administered by the appointed Jōnin sensei's each team was assigned… and today it had happened.

His team may have passed but it was by the skin of their teeth and purely because of the boy he considered his rival. Uchiha Sasuke. The test had been to examine their teamwork but none of them had realised it until they had already lost. He had ended up tied to a log while his sensei had given his teammates a pair of bento's with the instructions of 'do not feed him'. Sasuke had gone against those instructions… and they had passed.

He was finally a genin of Konohagakure no Sato… but for some reason he didn't feel as happy as he thought he would, if anything he felt depressed.

So here he was, slowly walking along the central business area of the village, his head held low and his usual expression of excitement and happiness absent from his face, as his mind tried to come up with the reason behind his lack of happiness, or rather, trying to figure out why it hurt so much.

His team may have passed the test but it didn't feel like he really passed. All he had done was get fed, he might have tried to get the bells their sensei was using as targets but in the end, he was completely outclassed.

He had originally charged straight at the man, ready to beat him to a pulp like the traitor on that fateful night, however things hadn't gone even close to plan. His new sensei was named Hatake Kakashi, a tall and lanky man with gravity defying silver hair that wore the standard Konoha military garb of dark clothes and an olive flak jacket, with the only deviation being the mask made of cloth that covered everything from his eyes down, with his hitae-ate slanted over his left eye.

What the man did had led towards his current state of mind. Instead of defending himself seriously when he saw his blond student charge at him, he had pulled out a book and started reading. Despite putting his best effort into attacking the man, Kakashi had never once looked up from his little orange book or used his left hand.

When he had realised that the Jōnin was too strong for him to defeat one on one, he had formed several Kage Bunshin, only to find that the man had replaced himself with one of HIS clones. The experience was humiliating to say the least, the fact he had believed the man had used a henge instead of a Kawarimi had made him attack his own copies, wasting his strength even more than necessary while simultaneously making him look like an idiot in front of the girl he had been chasing for years.

He had thought the humiliation would end there, but instead he had fallen for an obvious trap that anyone with half a brain cell would've avoided.

In the end, he had been nothing like a ninja during that test.

That realisation had genuinely hit him with more force than anything before, even discovering that he was the prison for the beast that had terrorised the village the day he was born had hit him with less force than this. At least with the Kyūbi it was something that he had no say in, that couldn't be changed even if he wanted, but to realise that your own talent was non-existent and that the strength he had been convinced he possessed didn't exist was something else entirely.

He let out a tired sigh as he continued to walk along the street, ignoring the cold stares he received from the majority of the public as he kept his hands firmly within the pockets of his neon orange jumpsuit.

It wasn't even halfway through the day and he had nothing to do since his sensei had dismissed them for the day, why the man had done so he didn't know, they could've easily started training or even get their first mission as a team but the Jōnin had decided that that was all he wanted from them for the day.

Thinking about his sensei he came to a simple conclusion. The man had been over two hours late both days they had met him, he seemed to lack any form of enthusiasm for the team and he didn't even bother to start anything when it was only just past midday, his mind leaned towards a single sentence 'Kakashi-sensei is lazy'.

This may not have sounded like much but Naruto knew what it meant, he couldn't rely on his new sensei to teach him.

That realisation was not seen by anyone however, the only change in his expression being a single blink as his face lacked the ability to look more depressed than he already was.

"Hello Naruto-kun, what can I get for you today?" a familiar voice interrupted his musings as he became aware where he had walked.

He was currently standing in a small stand, it was a quaint little establishment, possessing nothing more than a counter with several stools as a middle aged man and a young woman both wore chef's clothing as they prepared the noodle based meals their stand was known for.

It was also Naruto's favourite place in Konoha and the one place he was made to feel welcome, if anywhere could make him feel better it would be here.

"Hey Teuchi-ojisan, can I get a large miso with roasted pork fillet?" came the boy's call, with only a hint of his depression seeping into his tone, however it was enough for the older man to notice as he started preparing the ingredients for the child's order.

"So what's wrong Naruto-kun? You've got a hitae-ate so it's obvious you didn't fail again so what's got you down?" the owner asked as he put the ingredients in a pot to cook for the young boy.

"There was another test," the blue eyed child said as his face took its previous look of depression, causing the owner of the ramen stand to raise an eyebrow.

"You still have your hitae-ate so you're still a ninja aren't you?" the owner of the little ramen stand asked as he finished putting the blonds order in a bowl and giving it to him over the counter.

"Yeah, itadakimasu," came the boy's reply, his usual enthusiasm nowhere to be seen as he proceeded to eat at a pace the middle aged chef had never seen him eat at before.

"So what's got you so down?" the kind man asked as he leaned on the counter, hoping the blond would be prepared to tell him what had gone wrong.

Letting out a large sigh, Naruto started to talk to the older man.

"The test wasn't like the academy tests, Kakashi-sensei told us to go at him with the intent to kill," he started, earning a curt nod off the owner of the ramen stand, Kakashi was well known within Konoha as one of the three strongest ninjas that normally stayed within the village, he may not have been on par with Jiraiya or Tsunade but he was still a very strong shinobi.

"I take it he beat you pretty badly huh?" Teuchi may not have been a ninja but he was one of the few civilians that understood how strong ninja really were, he'd delivered more than his fare share of takeouts to the training fields after all.

"He… he completely humiliated me," the young blond muttered quietly as he hung his head in shame at the conflict that had occurred earlier, "I threw everything I had against him and he never once took his eyes off that damned book of his."

There was an emotion in Naruto's voice that the far more experience man had never once heard from the boy before, it was something to told him exactly what was wrong with the child, he was ashamed.

"Well Kakashi-san is supposed to be VERY strong," came a feminine voice as Teuchi's daughter decided to join in on the conversation.

"He took Sasuke seriously," it may have only been a mutter but the duo of ramen chefs both heard it clearly and neither believed that the legendary 'Sharingan no Kakashi' would take a newly graduated genin seriously.

"Did he use his left eye?" Teuchi asked, his knowledge of the man telling him that the blond had misjudged his strength.

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" came the confusion ridden response to the question.

"Kakashi is known to have a special eye hidden under his hitae-ate, they say he's one of the best at using that type of eye as well," the ramen chef responded, earning a pair of wide eyes off the blond in the process, "I take it that he didn't use it then, which also means he wasn't taking Sasuke seriously either."

"He was still more serious than when he fought me…" the silence that followed was palpable, despite the owners intention of making his favourite customer happier, he had failed, even his ramen wasn't working its usual magic this time.

Once he had finished his first bowl, Naruto did something he rarely ever did after only one bowl of ramen, with a hefty sigh, he pulled out his favourite frog wallet and paid for the dish, "see ya Teuchi-ojisan," it was then that Teuchi realised just how hard the boy had been hit by his revelation as he watched the child leave the stand after only his first bowl of ramen.

Naruto was also doing another thing he rarely ever did under normal circumstances, he was thinking. It might not sound like a lot but he was known to jump first, ask if he could survive the landing later, so the fact that he was currently so deep in thought that he was unable to even notice the cold stares sent his way, was actually saying quite a lot.

His thoughts hadn't changed much, he was still thinking about the total humiliation he had suffered at the hands of Kakashi-sensei earlier. It was as if all his hours of hard work and effort had amounted to nothing, that no matter how hard he tried he would never be a 'true' ninja.

Other fights he had gotten into suddenly appeared in the front of his mind, within the graduating class he had never once beaten a boy of his own age group in a spar (well, except Shikamaru but that was because he forfeit before a single punch had been thrown), he had only managed to beat Mizuki because he had the element of surprise with the Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, he had only beaten that closet pervert of a private tutor courtesy of his Harem no Jutsu which was worth nothing in a real fight.

The more he thought about it, the more he realised he had been in denial all this time. He had believed he would become Hokage and be respected by the village but with his complete lack of talent and skill, was it even possible to reach Chūnin let alone Hokage.

"I quit that kind of stuff already," came a voice that peaked Naruto's interest, he recognised that voice as belonging to the Hokages grandson, Konohamaru.

"That's right, you finally understand don't you? Doing as I say is your shortcut to becoming Hokage," came another voice the boy had heard before. However unlike the brotherly affection he had for the little boy, the feelings he felt upon hearing this voice were closer to contempt. The man was yet another member of Konoha that looked down on him, that treated him with the same cold stare as everyone else… he was also the only person he had used his harem no jutsu against and the man had fallen for it effortlessly.

"There aren't any shortcuts," Konohamaru's voice said quietly, causing Naruto to let out a small smile at the child's words, words he himself had passed onto the boy, "Naruto-niichan told me, if you want to become Hokage, you have to accept it."

Suddenly his day didn't seem as bad as he had thought, sure he had been humiliated but just then, he had seen that despite his loudmouth exterior, despite his lack of skills, despite his inability to grasp concepts, he had been able to set a good example for his junior.

Suddenly a thought struck him. He had never seen this man's true skills. Sure he had beaten the arrogant tutor with his perverted technique but he had managed to knock out the Hokage with one, so all it really did was show just how perverted a person was, it had nothing to do with their strength in combat.

This man, despite his perversion, had been assigned by the Hokage himself to train his grandson, why would the aged leader assign a weakling to train one of his most important people? The answer was obvious, the man wasn't as weak as he appeared… either that or he was more like Sakura with lots of book smarts and no real strength.

But then again, you didn't need to be strong to teach, you only needed a good grasp of the basics to teach someone how to get stronger. Realising this, Naruto figured out what he had to do… the only question was how to do it?

"Hey Konohamaru, closet perv, what'cha doing?" Naruto called out as he walked over to the duo.

"Naruto-niichan!" Konohamaru almost shouted as he jumped up from his push ups with more energy that he appeared to have, while the Tokubetsu Jōnin called Ebisu spluttered indignantly, "I'm training really hard, I'll become Hokage long before you!"

If Naruto had taken any offense at that statement he didn't show a single hint of it as playfully patted the younger boy on the head.

"You might become Hokage, but that'll be after me," came the playful taunt from the whiskered boy as his eyes shifted to the Jōnin for just a second. However being a Jōnin (even if only Tokubetsu) means that you're capable of seeing such signs and Ebisu prepared himself for whatever was to come.

"Honourable grandson, I think it would be worth doing some running to build your cardiovascular system, after all, you need stamina if you want to be a strong ninja," the man stated, his eyes hidden behind his circular sunglasses.

"Wha? Do I have to do it now?" the youngest of the group asked, wondering why he was being told to run just when his big brother figure had arrived.

"Listen to the closet perv," Naruto said, resulting in the tokubetsu Jōnin spluttering once again in indignation, "stamina is really important so you should work on it."

"Okay…" the young child said with a moan, he was certain something was going on and he didn't want to be left out of it, which it appeared even his big brother didn't want him present for whatever was going to happen.

"Now honourable grandson, you must run at least one lap around the village, I'm sure you already know of the stairs up the mountain don't you?" the private tutor told the young boy as he used his index finger to push his glasses up and hide his eyes.

"Hai sensei…" and lacking his previous enthusiasm, the young boy proceeded to leave the clearing where he had been training and started his lap of the village.

A tense silence followed as neither party seemed prepared to make the first move in their latest encounter, Ebisu because he didn't know what to expect from the boy in front of him, and Naruto because he didn't want to shatter whatever remained of his pride.

In the end, the stalemate was broken by the older of the two, his suspicions growing with every second that passed in the tense silence.

"Alright, explain yourself, I saw you glance at me so you've obviously come to try something," the darkly dressed man stated, his body ready to react at the first sign of danger… or those damned perverted jutsu's the boy made.

"I want a rematch."

The teachers danger senses tingled, he just knew that it wouldn't be that simple, the child would probably try to beat him with those transformations again… little did he know that the man before him had already prepared a method of beating the technique.

"And why would I accept such a ludicrous request?" the older man asked, still trying to figure out what the child was playing at.

"Do you want everyone in Konoha to know that you lost to a deadlast genin?" the smirk the whiskered boy emitted upon saying that simple question showed the older ninja that he was more than happy to let everyone know about that incident.

"I see.. so what are the conditions for this contest?" Ebisu asked as his eyes locked onto the child, although they could not be seen behind his spectacles.

"It's simple, we fight with everything we have, if you win I keep quiet about your loss to a genin, if I win the whole village will know just how weak you really are," that was all the proof he needed, Uzumaki Naruto was planning something. The child had no reason to fight him over this, he could simply tell everyone what had happened and potentially ruin the older man's reputation in the process.

"Fine, you're on," the Jōnin stated before he was once again shocked by the blond, this time from the simple fact he had charged straight at him.

The longer the fight continued, the more worried the Jōnin became, despite his obvious lack of skill, finesse, speed or power, the child was surprisingly adaptive, especially with the use of his bunshin and henge.

However it was the complete lack of one specific henge that was worrying the man, the last time they had met he had immediately been surrounded by naked women when the blond had decided to create his 'harem no jutsu' however this time there was not even a hint of the distraction technique.

Even when the blond was visibly drained and covered in bruises he refused to let his guard down, he was certain that the boy noticed his guard and was just waiting for him to drop it before pulling out his pathetic jutsu.

"I… I give up," that one sentence rung through the tutors head, Uzumaki Naruto had given up, something was definitely fishy now, "I won't tell anyone about you being beaten by me," Ebisu couldn't help but blink in surprise, the Uzumaki boy was actually planning on sticking to his word, "that doesn't mean I won't tell anyone about you being a closet perv though."

Suddenly the Jōnin's world stood still. He had won against the boy in battle but now the child was going to ruin his reputation in another way instead, he should have seen this coming a mile off and he had walked straight into it.

"There is a way you can make me shut up though," the whiskered boy said with a confident smirk, once again causing the man to question the boy's motives.

"And what is it you want off me?" the tokubetsu Jōnin made absolutely no effort to hide the suspicion present in his voice as the boy sat in front of him essentially grabbed him by the balls and was ready to start twisting any moment.

"Help."

Once again the tutor was caught off guard by his blond nemesis as he said the one word he had not expected it to say in response to his question.

Noticing the confusion on the tokubetsu Jōnin's face, Naruto decided to explain his situation and motives to the best of his ability, hopefully with the blackmail he had the man wouldn't risk being condescending in fear of retribution.

Letting out a deep sigh, he proceeded to talk to the older man.

"Earlier today I had my true genin exam and my team passed. But when I fought Kakashi-sensei…" he just couldn't bring himself to admit the difference between himself and his sensei in front of this man, however he had given enough information for the closet pervert to figure out what had happened.

"I see… so he completely humiliated you and you want revenge, so you've come to me to help you," the tone used was flat and unfeeling, despite his love of his reputation he wouldn't do anything to harm a fellow shinobi out of petty revenge.

"I don't care about revenge," the statement once again surprised the darkly dressed man as his mind wondered what the boy wanted, until he finally realised what the child had done and decided that Uzumaki Naruto was indeed far smarter than he appeared.

"Hehe, I can't believe it took me so long to see what you were after," this time it was Naruto that looked surprised, he had thought the man would've picked up on it I as soon as he had asked for help, then again, he should've known that his reputation as a prankster and their previous encounter would've changed how it played out, "you want me to train you don't you?"

"Not really, I don't know enough about you and probably won't have enough time to find you and train every day," the spiky haired boy told the man as he simply sat on the grass of the training ground, his face back to the frown that it had been marred by until he arrived in the clearing.

Several seconds of silence reigned as the more experienced man thought over what he had seen. The boy had below average taijutsu, with most of his passing grade made out of his unpredictability as opposed to actual skill, strength or power, however on the battlefield that unpredictability was nowhere near great enough to take on many ninja's that possessed far more power, speed and greater reflexes courtesy of better training, more developed bodies and real combat experience. His chakra control was simply appalling, the amount of chakra he wasted creating something as simple as a Kage Bunshin was truly amazing, if anything though it just made his ability to create as many as he did even more impressive.

If the professional tutor was honest, he would admit that the blonds kunai throwing was possibly on par with some of the lower ranking Jōnin he had met, while his henge and Kage bunshin were used in inspired and sometimes amazing ways. However apart from those and his immense stamina, he had no good qualities when it came down to being a shinobi and he wasn't prepared to lie about something like that.

"I will be honest with you, you have an immense amount of stamina, your accuracy with kunai and shuriken is impressive even for a Chūnin, your henge is superb and you have the brains to use it in conjunction with your kage bunshin to impressive effect," Ebisu stated, causing the blond to suddenly go wide eyed at what the man was telling him, he had never been praised like that before, "however, every other area is substandard at best, horrific at worst, it is absolutely no surprise Kakashi-sempai was capable of completely humiliating you in combat."

Suddenly the spark that had appeared in Naruto's eyes vanished as he realised the man wasn't really praising him, if anything he felt even worse upon hearing that statement, especially considering how much time he put into his taijutsu.

His interest was suddenly piqued as he noticed the man he had beaten with his harem no jutsu suddenly pulled out a pen and paper which he happily started to write with. Naruto couldn't help but feel curious at what the man was doing, why was he writing? It didn't really make any sense to him, that is until the closet pervert finished and passed the piece of paper to him.

"I know you said you didn't want to train under me, I'm not stupid enough to not see why, despite what you said you simply don't want Konohamaru to see you coming to me for help," Naruto's eyes widened upon hearing this statement, he couldn't believe the man had seen through him that easily, "what I've done instead is write a list of books you should borrow from the library, if you truly are serious about getting stronger then you'll be prepared to read."

Upon hearing the words 'book' and 'library' Naruto couldn't help but let out a pained expression. Despite his desperation to get stronger he had wanted to avoid those two things, however as it stood, he guessed that he didn't really have much choice in the matter, it was either read or lose his pride… and despite the number of times he had made a fool out of himself in the past, he had always had his pride.

"I have one question for you now," the glasses wearing Jōnin said, causing the boy to look up at him, wondering what the man was planning on asking, "have you ever heard of the seven deadly sins?"

It was a simple question and it made the boy look at him in confusion, it was obvious to anyone watching that that was the first time he had even heard the phrase, more importantly it told Ebisu that the boy needed to be taught about them.

"The seven deadly sins are a series of character faults that can be a person's downfall if they ever grow too large… and I can tell that you've fallen to one of them already," the statement caught Naruto off guard, he had already fallen to one of these 'sins'? "the seven deadly sins are known as Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, Sloth, Envy and the one that you have almost completely succumbed to… Pride."

Confusion racked the blonds brain as he wondered why pride was considered one of the seven deadly sins, it not like it hurt him or anything… right?

"I can see you don't understand why pride is a bad thing to have too much of, tell me, how many people have you asked for help?" despite asking the question, Ebisu already had an idea of what the answer would be, however he wanted the boy to figure it out himself.

Naruto's face suddenly took on an air of surprise before shifting into a concentrated frown, his mind trying to recall each time he had asked for help before now. Each time he came across a memory where he didn't understand something, instead of asking the teachers to help him, he had always ignored it and carried on doing things the way he always had… and that was when it struck him.

The reason he was so weak wasn't a lack of hard work or talent, it was his inability to ask others to help him because of his pride. His pride had destroyed his education and because no-one had warned him about it he had never realised it was a problem. Finally understanding this his face took on an even more depressed scowl as the realisation that it was his pride that hindered his growth, not his talent.

"Have you finally realised why your pride is a problem?" the darkly dressed tutor asked upon seeing the change in the boys expression, earning a nod of confirmation off the child as he simply sat on the grass, unmoving as he finally understood the reason for his lack of strength, "pride in itself isn't a bad thing, after all, having pride in being a Konoha Shinobi can help you fight harder and complete your missions more efficiently… but as you can see, having too much pride, or having pride in the wrong thing can be dangerous for a ninja."

Silence reigned as Naruto simply continued sitting, his mind still blown by the revelations of the day, not only was he weak but it was his own fault, not for lack of effort but because he was too prideful to ask for help.

Looking at his hand, he finally noticed the biggest achievement of his life so far. It was not earning his hitae-ate, it was not painting the Hokage monument in broad daylight, it was not becoming a genin or anything else, it was getting this one piece of paper. His greatest achievement was swallowing his pride and finally asking someone for help… and it looked like he had gotten it.

"Thank you, Ebisu-sensei," it was quiet and he hated calling this closet pervert something as respectful as sensei but the man had literally given him something with which he could get stronger and even more importantly, he had revealed his greatest flaw.

Ebisu on the other hand was completely taken aback by the boy's thank you, not only because he had never expected the boy to thank him but also the fact that he had shown him some form of respect. Quickly schooling his expression into one of cold and calculating apathy, he thought something he had never considered before, that the boy in front of him may one day become a great ninja, he already appeared to be trying to tackle his greatest flaw if the thanks he gave was anything to go by.

"I am a professional tutor, I may not be the strongest in terms of actual combat, however I am a master of the basics," it may have been a pride filled statement but even Naruto could understand that the man wasn't bragging about being the strongest, merely that he believed he was one of the best teachers in the village.

"I guess I should get going… I don't want Konohamaru to see me like this," the spiky haired blond said as he jumped to his feet, the small rest he managed to receive restoring most of his strength.

"Then I bid you farewell Naruto-san," it may have only been a simple farewell but it was enough to tell the blond that the older man's opinion of him had changed since the last time he met him and going by their conversation, he was pretty sure that it was for the better, as opposed to for the worse.

"See ya," and with a small wave, the orange clad blond headed for the tree line where he quickly disappeared, his destination, the one place he never thought he would ever visit, the library.

XXX XXX XXX

Haruno Sakura was only a young girl. Unlike so many konoichi within the shinobi ranks of Konohagakure no Sato she had not yet witnessed the true terror being on the front line could create.

Just like Naruto she had taken her true genin exam earlier that day but unlike him, she never confronted her sensei head on. Her performance was if possible, even more humiliating than her teammates, in that she didn't even try to take a bell from her sensei, instead falling for an obvious genjutsu and passing out due to her obsession with her third teammate, one Uchiha Sasuke.

While Naruto may have had blond hair and wear what many of the class described as a 'kill me orange' jumpsuit, she had an even more ridiculous colour scheme. She wore a bright red dress that ended about half way up her thighs while the sides from the waist down were slitted to allow easy movement. Under her dress she wore a simple pair of black shorts to make up for her dresses inability to cover her, while regular shinobi sandals adorned her feet. Despite the bright nature of her dress, her hair was even harder to hide, long pink hair, held back by her hitae-ate, reached halfway down her back while a pair of bangs framed her face.

Despite her lacking performance in the genin exam, she couldn't have been happier. She was finally going to get Uchiha Sasuke to herself without her main rival interfering like she always did before, in other words nothing could spoil this moment, the moment that she was finally given the chance to woo the top of her class, one on one.

However her thoughts soon deflated upon remembering her 'other' teammate. Out of all the people that she could've gotten on the same team as herself and Sasuke, why did it have to be Naruto? While Sasuke was the epitome of cool, a dark haired pretty boy with unrivalled talent and a loner attitude, Naruto was the epitome of loser, a blond haired idiot with no attitude that kept trying to get the same girl to date him… she wouldn't have cared as much if she wasn't the girl he kept pestering.

Of course she had rejected him on many occasions and despite her best efforts he simply wouldn't stop, she may have tried to get him away from her nicely at one point but when he never ceased, she proceeded to resort to violence and he still rejected her rejections. That relationship had become almost completely ingrained into her now, after several years of trying to get the boy to leave her alone it had become second nature to lash out at him. She was anything but proud of that fact, however he still refused to accept that she didn't have any interest in him and the more he bothered her, the less likely it became that her habit would change.

In the end though, they were now on the same team and as long as he didn't get in her or Sasuke's way, she would at least try to work with him, she just hoped that he wouldn't take her cooperation as anything more than her accepting the unfortunate fact that he was her teammate and nothing she did would change it.

She couldn't help but giggle a bit when her mind wandered back to the idea that she was now both a genin and on Sasuke's team, it was everything she wanted when she attended the team announcements, well excluding having Naruto with them. Then there was also the fact that tomorrow would be their first mission as genin team 7, knowing about that made images fly through her head of what sorts of danger they would face, or what sort of enemy they would have to fight, all in all, her imagination was beginning to overexert itself.

Of course she had already prepared herself for whatever she would have to deal with tomorrow, all their sensei had told them was that they wouldn't be leaving the village, which meant she didn't have to pack for a trip, just the supplies in case they got into any fights or one of them got injured.

Once again her imagination began to run rampant as she imagined Sasuke defeating a crime boss, suffering a series of major injuries courtesy of the man's henchman, causing her to tend to his wounds before he declared his love to her.

Of course she was going to be in for a disappointment when they actually did get their mission.

XXX XXX XXX

Uchiha Sasuke was once just another member of the infamous Uchiha clan, regularly considered to be one of the greatest clans within the village. However due to one night involving one person, everything changed.

No longer was he just another Uchiha, he was now the only Uchiha within Konoha. That night five years ago, when he came home late from school one day, only to be met with his clans streets, flowing with blood while corpses littered the ground he walked on. Just like any other child, the first thing to come to his mind was his parents and in a panicked hurry, he ran to his home… his home, the place that would forever haunt his nightmares, as he witnessed his parents, both laying in heaps while his big brother simply stood over them, a bloodied ninjato gripped within his hand.

It was that nightmarish scene that had forever changed the raven haired boy, gone was the happy child whose only desire was to play with his brother and impress his father… in his place was a boy whose mind focused solely on revenge. He would kill his brother for destroying his life, he would kill that man for everything he taken from him and when he was finished with that goal, the Uchiha would rise from the ashes and once again take their place as the villages strongest clan.

However he needed to get stronger, much, much stronger. The genin exam had only further cemented the fact that he was weak, if Kakashi could defeat him then so could that man, if he wasn't strong enough to beat that man then he would never avenge his family's deaths.

With this realisation, he once again took to one of the training areas within the deserted Uchiha district where he immediately started to practice his katas against one of the many training posts in an attempt to improve his taijutsu. Every hit he made, he imagined the face of that man on the posts, every hit he put his full power behind, with every hit he tried to shatter the face that haunted his nightmares.

Hatred. That was his strength. It was what he had used to fuel his growth ever since that day. It was the only motivation he needed to get stronger, it was the reason for his existence, his only reason to survive that night was so he could kill that man and allow his family to rest in peace, knowing that their killer had come to justice.

Unlike his teammates, he didn't care about the team, he had only given Naruto his bento because he figured out that that was the only way they would pass, what he wanted was the training his new sensei could give him, with true training, he may actually stand a chance against his brother and become one step closer to his ambition.

XXX XXX XXX

Hatake Kakashi wasn't the sort of man that would get annoyed easily but he had found himself quickly growing tired of the other Jōnin when he had attended the standard meeting to inform the Hokage which teams had passed their true genin exam.

This year he was one of the three Jōnin that had passed their team, something that had caused quite a stir given that the last seven teams he had tested had all failed. He had heard several people mutter that it was because he had the 'last Uchiha' on that team and although he had wanted to kick them where the sun doesn't shine for insinuating that he was in anyway biased, he had managed to hold himself in check.

It was easy to see why others had come to that conclusion however, his best friend had been an Uchiha and had even given him his eye as his dying wish on the one mission where they had finally become a true team, the guilt he felt over that mission still plagued him every day. If he had only gone with Obito straight away instead of putting the mission first, his entire team may still be alive… well apart from Minato-sensei but he died for a very different reason.

What had annoyed him however was that people were calling him biased behind his back for using what had become known as 'the bell test', an exam created by the Sandaime Hokage himself and passed along his line of students and their students, he himself had been tested by the same test with the same results so if he had failed the team for doing what had allowed his team to pass nearly two decades ago then he would have been spitting in what had become known as the greatest test for displaying the value of teamwork.

Right now he had to accept what the other Jōnin thought of his decision to pass his first team despite the inaccuracy of their beliefs, he had something more important to do.

People would stop and either stare or glare at him in the middle of the street as he calmly made his way to apartment, he knew why people looked at him that way, it was the book he would constantly read.

'Icha Icha' was a small series of books written by Jiraiya of the Sannin over his travels and it held a reputation as being written by a pervert for perverts. What only the people who actually read it knew however was that it wasn't exactly pornographic. The book followed the adventures of a fictional man that was loosely based off the author as he attempted to find love and romance, most of the time with very little success if any at all.

What had given it its reputation was its age rating, which was decided by the strong language and the numerous sex references contained within it as the main character tried to seduce the many women he encountered, generally receiving a beating as opposed to what he actually wanted.

Unfortunately it made reading the book a taboo despite its complete lack of actually pornographic material. It was because of that reason that Kakashi was the only man in the village that didn't hide his copy of the little orange book and if a women ever took it from him he would convince them to read it one way or another and in doing so, clear the books reputation in the process.

Finally arriving at the front door of his apartment, the Jōnin pulled out his keys, channelled chakra into them and with a simple turn within the keyhole, deactivated the many seal based traps that guarded his home.

Making a mental note of which page he was up to, Kakashi closed his favourite book and searched for the sheets of paper he kept within his home, finding a pen he was finally ready to write what he had planned to before arriving back at his small flat.

He wasn't going to train his students in anything but teamwork exercises during the time he had assigned for training, however he hoped that they would at least be prepared to take the initiative and ask him for help outside of their standard practice. That was why he was doing this. Three sheets of paper each with exercises or tips that could help each genin improve should they ever ask him for training.

Of course, he was planning on teaching like Minato-sensei taught him, he had to ask if he ever wanted to learn something new and even more importantly, he had to know what he wanted to learn. Doing so would prepare them for life as a Chūnin, once a genin had been promoted their Jōnin sensei would no longer be there to tell them what they needed to learn or teach them every day, so getting them into the habit of asking for help would help them in the long run.

That was how the Yondaime did it and he was the only man Kakashi had ever trained under, so he would be damned if he just threw his sensei's teaching style out of the window.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto may have wanted to become stronger but at the same time, he didn't want to have to read, despite his lack of enthusiasm concerning the method of learning he was going to be performing, he decided that the sooner he had read the books, the sooner he wouldn't have to worry about them.

That is why he was now heading towards his small apartment while carrying three books, 'The Foundations Of Taijutsu', 'The Basics Of Chakra' and 'Stealth For Dummies', out of all the books the one he resented the most right now was the last of the three, the title alone succeeded in earning his ire.

Of course he understood that he needed to relearn the basic stuff he was supposed to pay attention to during the academy, however that didn't mean he liked that fact. While he may have wanted to learn cool new ninjutsu that could wipe out any enemy he chose to fight, he realised that simply getting the basics down would help him in the long run.

Finally reaching his apartment, Naruto opened the door, revealing a decent sized room that looked smaller than it actually was courtesy of the kitchen being placed along two of the walls, while a round table, large enough for four people took up space at the other side of the room, a small television resting one it, facing away from the wall.

There were two doors leading out of the room, the exit that led to the corridor that connected it to the outside world, while the other led to his bedroom with a small en-suite.

Instead of going straight to his bedroom like he usually did, he proceed to place the trio of books on the table before taking 'The Foundations Of Taijutsu' and opening to the first page.

'_Many people say that taijutsu is the art of using only your body to inflict damage, however make no mistake, taijutsu simply refers to beating your enemy until they can't fight back.'_

Naruto had to blink at that statement several times. He had to admit that that was how he had always thought of taijutsu when he was in the academy. Deciding that there was probably more to it than that, he proceeded to read more.

Despite the first statement, the book was anything but a brawlers guide, instead of simply telling him to swing and hope for the best like he had always done, it said that defeating an opponent in taijutsu meant being capable of expending less energy to receive more devastating results, that taking large swings like he always made allowed enemies plenty of time to see the attack and prepare for it.

What the book told him, was that a good taijutsu style was one that involved quick and concise attacks, minimising the amount of time the opponent has to respond to the strike.

That was the first rule of taijutsu, _'make it simple and small.'_

With that rule in mind, the blond sat up from his table as he walked over to his bedroom door and with a quick turn of the handle, he was greeted by the sight of his bed, surrounded by the equipment he had accumulated over the years to help with his training.

Looking at his training dummy, he let out a small grin as the punching bag stood in the middle of a clearing in his room, dressed just how he liked it… in a mockery of his new teammate, Uchiha Sasuke.

He had decorated the object to help with his frustration aimed towards the dark haired boy, the one that all the girls doted over, including the object of his affections, Haruno Sakura.

He knew why the girls obsessed over him but his pride refused to let him admit that, as far as he was concerned Sasuke had nothing he didn't, even if deep down he knew it was a lie. Sasuke beat him in everything and the genin exam earlier had further proven that point when the raven haired prodigy had actually managed to touch one of the bells they were supposed to steal from their sensei.

Remembering that event, Naruto couldn't help but feel his anger well up as he faced the dummy, his muscles burning to be used to smash it's face in… and he was more than happy to accept.

Just as he was about to throw a wide right, a single sentence popped into his head, _'make it simple and small'_, immediately he put his arm down before putting his arms up in front of him and with a simple focus, he extended his right. The results were obvious, where before he would've knocked the dummy to the side, now it didn't move at all.

Once again anger welled up inside him, a punch like that was worthless, so why would the book tell him to do something like that? Storming out of his room he once again opened the book.

As he continued to read, his anger began to die down, the book itself said that a simple extension of your arm or leg wouldn't have much power behind it, making the attacks almost completely useless for anything except interrupting your opponents rhythm. Instead it told him the important part on how to put power behind a strike, that in order to make a punch or kick powerful, the user must put their body behind the strike.

With a punch it was necessary to put the strength of your legs and back into it, by using both to extend the attack and put a proper sense of power into a strike, they called it the second rule _'use your whole body.'_

And with that rule in his mind, he once again decided to practice against his dummy.

Several hours passed as the blond proceeded to practice punching and kicking in ways he hadn't before, his strikes putting his full weight behind each one as he learned punches that would help him improve as he began to discover just how to put his body into each blow, quickly learning how to twist his body into a punch.

Naruto didn't know what to make of the punch he had stumbled across, the power behind it was so immense that he wondered just how much it would hurt to get struck by it. He understood roughly how he did it but at the same time, it wasn't something he was at all used to, so he did what was normal for him, he proceeded to practice the punch, over and over again, hoping that he would get it down and be capable of pulling it off when it truly counted.

The corkscrew blow would be something he would master.

Time passed quickly for the young boy as he practiced non-stop in an attempt to master the punch he had just learned, however in the end, hunger decided that he needed to stop.

His stomach growled in protest to his continued practice, he had started to feel hungry over an hour ago but in his obsession with mastering the punch he had thrown had caused him to put off his hunger as a minor annoyance, however it had finally decided that enough was enough and with a mighty roar let him know that it wanted to be filled NOW.

So with a reluctance the blond poured water into a pan before putting it on his cooker to boil while he retrieved a packet of instant ramen from one of his cupboards.

As he waited for the water to boil, three words began to grate on his nerves… 'Stealth For Dummies'. Simply having the book in the same room as he was in made him feel even more stupid than before, so with a heavy heart, he decided to get the annoyance over and done with.

'_chapter 1: how to not be seen.'_

Immediately his eye began to twitch as he read the title of the chapter, it simply made him feel like the book thought he was a mockery, which given the fact he had managed to evade ANBU patrols before, seriously began to piss him off.

'_Do not stand up.'_

Once again he book managed to grate on his nerves as he read just a single, simple sentence which was such common knowledge that anyone could realise that they should do it.

'_Do not hide somewhere obvious.'_

'_Do not wear bright colours.'_

Once again he began to hate the book even more, stating such obvious things that could make hiding fail, before he realised why Ebisu had recommended the book. Looking at his arm, he saw something that the book advised against, a bright colour.

He had already decided that he was going to take being a ninja seriously and despite his fondness of the jumpsuit he was currently wearing, he had to admit that it was impractical for a ninja to wear neon orange.

Looking at the clock, he couldn't help but realise that it was too late to buy new clothes now. Letting out a sigh he proceeded to write a note reminding him to buy new clothes tomorrow, leaving it on the door of his refrigerator before proceeding to finish making his dinner, a single cup of instant ramen.

Instead of simply focusing on the noodle dish, Naruto decided to continue reading 'Stealth For Dummies' hoping that it would at least get a bit better later on. Finishing chapter one, the blond couldn't help but feel that the book seemed to have already covered the basics of hiding and had taught him nothing, even if it had made him realise something important.

Finally finished with his meal and his stomach once again happy, he once again headed to his bedroom where he once again began to practice twisting his body into each punch he threw, trying his hardest to put all his power into each strike while making the strike quick and hard to predict. He was beginning to get a straight right down, however he soon found that adjusting his twist for each different direction of punch was harder than he thought as his body began to feel the wear and tear of constant strain.

However he persevered, if he was right then his rapid healing was courtesy of the fox sealed within his gut and simple strain caused by training wouldn't cause any serious harm to him and despite everything, he wanted nothing more than to at least get one part of his taijutsu down before he retired for the night.

Hours past as he pushed his body further and further and despite of the pain he was beginning to feel he refused to give up his practice, he wouldn't go to bed until he could hit the dummy right twenty times in a row.

Several hours after the sun had finally set, his fist connected with the dummy just as Naruto wanted it to for the twentieth time in a row, he had finally reached his goal, he had finally gotten his punch down to a point where he could use it successfully most of the time… and with that he finally let his body collapse onto his bed as he let the burn leave his body.

His first day of being a ninja and relearning the basics was finally over.


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto couldn't stop himself from releasing a contented sigh as he stepped into the hot rain created by his shower, the pelting water massaging his aching muscles as he tried to make himself wake up from his exhausted slumber.

It was early, not quite as early as he was normally awake however he had had a very late night in comparison to what he was used to. His mind started to waver in and out of consciousness as he simply allowed himself to soak, the warmth the shower provided beginning to revitalise him as he forced his mind to focus on the previous night.

He had done it. He had made his first step towards becoming strong, he had asked for help and even more importantly, he had gotten it.

A smile graced his lips as he remembered practicing his new style of punching, he just knew that it would give him a significant boost in strength as he finally understood why he could never win in taijutsu. He was easy to predict, his wide swings giving his opponents ample amounts of time to respond to the clumsy assault, something this new style of punching wouldn't give them.

His mind shifted to another lesson from the previous night, one that he was reluctant to listen to but knew he had to anyway.

Today he was going to ditch his jumpsuit. He loved his jumpsuit, it was both his favourite colour and incredibly comfortable, it had water proofing meaning he wouldn't get dragged down if he ever fell into a river or the likes, it would dry off quickly making it possible to wash it at night and have it dry enough to wear the next day, all in all, if it wasn't for the colour it would have been one of the most practical sets of clothing in the elemental nations.

But now he was going to have to get new clothes to wear for missions. He hated thinking about it, the idea of ditching his jumpsuit hurt, his attachment to his possessions greater than that of a normal persons thanks to his lack of friends making him find comfort in non sentient objects. He just hoped he could find something with orange on it, even if the amount of orange was significantly smaller than what he was used to, it didn't feel right not having any at all.

He didn't know why his mind was so attached to the colour orange, it was a mystery that the Hokage seemed to know the answer to, almost as if there was some divine reason to it that the old man knew, perhaps it was hereditary, that was the most he could think of.

Shaking away those thoughts he quickly reminded himself that no matter who his parents were it didn't change anything, they weren't here for him and that was all that mattered. He was certain they were dead, the Hokage had told him that it was the money they had saved up that had paid for his apartment and he was given a small amount of that money each month so he knew that they hadn't simply abandoned him.

It was also one of the reasons he had decided to become a ninja, he had heard that no civilians were killed during the Kyūbi attack, so given that they died during it meant they were ninja and if that was the case, he would do his best to follow in their footsteps.

It wasn't the only reason he had decided to be a ninja, he had seen how everyone respected the Hokage so that was his aim, to become Hokage and be acknowledged by the villagers. He knew it wouldn't be easy but he would persevere and one day, he would be the one to wear that hat and have everyone call him Hokage-sama.

Simply thinking about it made a happy grin grace his face as his mind started wandering to other things that weren't actually related to being the Hokage, namely having Sakura in his arms as she realised she didn't love Sasuke and that he was everything she ever wanted… yes, being the Hokage and being married to Sakura was everything he wanted… well apart from humiliating Sasuke but that came before Sakura married him so it was understandable that it wasn't included in his fantasy.

Once again shaking his head clear, he reminded himself that he still had a long way to go if what was established during the true genin exam was anything to go by. The only comforts he had right now, were that he had made his first step to becoming stronger and the warm water crashing down on him, its rhythmic pounding already finished its job of easing his muscles and bringing him back into top form.

Turning off the comforting rain, he proceeded to leave the shower, grabbing a towel that he wrapped around his waist before leaving the small en-suite and making his way to the living room, ready to use the open plan kitchen to make his breakfast, which just like every other day, was going to be ramen.

Putting his pot to boil and opening a cup of instant ramen, his mind once again wandered to the previous day, he had put so much practice into his new punch that he was certain he would be able to do it whenever he wanted, however that didn't mean he couldn't put a little more practice into it while he waited for his breakfast to finish boiling.

Still in a perpetual haze caused by not having fully awoken yet, he made his way to the small bedroom, his eyes focusing on the training dummy, its image still a mockery of the last loyal Uchiha.

Readying himself, Naruto couldn't help but feel the urge to wipe the smug look off the raven haired boys face, his mind happily replacing the dummy with the real deal. As far as he was concerned he wasn't facing a dummy, he was facing the conceited 'rookie of the year' and with several twists that ran all the way through his body, the blond struck the imaginary boy, his nose buckling under the strength of the strike before the azure eyed boy continued his assault.

Strike after strike hit the mockery of the whiskered child's rival, every hit pushed the dummy further as he imagined Sasuke's bloodied face as he slowly but completely destroyed him, each hit earning a wince of pain as the dark eyed child was unable to do anything to protect himself.

Suddenly his eyes shot wide open as his mind picked up on the most important part of that image, Sasuke wasn't doing anything in that image, while in real life he would try to dodge, counter and strike back. Suddenly his mind began to feel depression taking over as he realised that he had no idea how he would compare with the prodigy without actually fighting him.

No longer constantly striking the dummy, his ears focused on a hissing sound coming from his living room, causing his eyes to widen once again as he remembered his breakfast.

With a speed he rarely displayed, he was standing over the pot of boiling water and turning the heat off, hoping that it hadn't all boiled away and there was at least enough for one cup of ramen.

Nervously taking the lid off the pot, his mind was filled with relief as he saw he hadn't been distracted for too long and the water was still mostly there, ready to be used for the cup of ramen sitting on the work surface.

After filling the cup to the brim with the boiling hot liquid, he placed the pot back on the now inactive hob before taking a set of chopsticks and crushing the currently soaking block of ramen at the bottom of the cup, releasing the flavour to the rest of the water and allowing the noodles to spread out in the cup, forming the food that the boy loved above all others.

Taking the cup to the table, he proceeded to open one of the books he had taken from the library, still deciding to try and get his least favourite book out of the way as soon as possible.

'_Chapter 2: dealing with sensor types'_

Immediately Naruto couldn't help but blink at the chapter title, unlike the first chapter this one appeared to actually have information that wasn't common knowledge, perhaps the book wouldn't be as bad as it sounded.

'_Among the ninja populace most are capable of detecting chakra to a certain extent, however there are people who learn how to sense chakra to a greater degree than a normal person, they are regularly referred to as sensor types.'_

For the first time Naruto wasn't annoyed with the information offered by the book, he had never heard of sensor types before so knowing that there were people who could detect his chakra would allow him to prepare for such an instance.

'_Unlike regular ninja who can merely feel the presence of chakra, a sensor possesses the ability to determine exactly how much chakra their opponent has and where they are located. This in turn makes hiding from a sensor type ninja incredibly difficult though not impossible.'_

Upon finishing that sentence, his mind began to wander, if an enemy was capable of detecting his chakra then how could he hide from them? Thinking hard, his mind began to formulate plans on how to deal with such an ability.

If the sensor was capable of detecting where a person was by their chakra then wouldn't it be possible to spread your chakra over a wide area to act as a form of shroud to cloud your actual location instead of simply keeping it in one small area?

If that was not possible then was it possible to hide your chakra from a person? If so then how was it done and what sort of training would he have to undergo in order to learn how to?

'_The easiest way to hide from a sensor is to spread your chakra so they cannot get a good picture of where you are, this method isn't advised as to do so you are required to waste most of, if not all your chakra to achieve workable results.'_

'_The harder method is more practical, however it is something that not many can achieve, requiring enough control over ones chakra to split it back into its basic components and therefore eliminate its very existence within your body.'_

Confusion began to spread though the boys mind as he wondered what it meant when it talked about splitting chakra into its basic components, as far as he could remember chakra was chakra but if what this book was saying was right then chakra was actually more than one thing mixed together.

He began to wonder what chakra actually was, his mind unable to come up with anything as he realised how little he remembered from the academy. Just as he was about to give up he saw something he had forgotten about, the only book he hadn't opened yet, 'The Basics Of Chakra'.

With a curious appreciation, he pushed 'Stealth For Dummies' to another side of the table before pulling the other book towards him and opening to the first chapter.

'_Chakra is possibly the most important requirement for being a shinobi, it is the energy one requires to utilise ninjutsu, genjutsu and F__ū__injutsu, it is also regularly used to enhance ones kenjutsu or even their taijutsu.'_

Naruto blinked a couple of times upon reading that chakra could be used to enhance his taijutsu, he had never been aware of that use before, was it possible that he was the only one in his class that didn't know? Was it possible Sasuke's strength came from using chakra to enhance his taijutsu instead of him just being better?

Realising that he needed to learn more about the power he called upon all the time, he couldn't help but continue reading the book, wondering how much he would learn from the first chapter alone.

'_Chakra is composed of two parts, Yin and Yang. As their names indicate they work to their greatest effect when the two are in balance, with Yin representing mental energy used to form a construct and Yang representing physical energy used to power the technique.'_

Realisation rushed through his head upon reading this statement, the way to hide from a sensor was to split your chakra into mental and physical energy instead of keeping it as chakra like most people subconsciously did. Just as his mind was finally beginning to understand what he was reading and the method of hiding from a sensor, confusion once again struck.

Chakra exhaustion was considered to be an extremely dangerous condition, which wouldn't make sense if a person could easily survive without chakra. Upon realising this, his mind once again started to work on the problem at hand. If chakra exhaustion was such a dangerous condition then why would it be safe to remove all chakra from your body?

The answer didn't take long to appear to him. It wasn't the lack of chakra that was dangerous, but the lack of it's components. That meant that if someone was capable of splitting their chakra into mental and physical energy there was a good chance that they could keep some in reserve and therefore not have to worry about something like chakra exhaustion.

Happy with the answer he had managed to come up with, he proceeded to look at the clock, he was supposed to meet his team in about half an hour and despite the fact he believed his sensei would be late yet again, he realised that if the man was on time for a change it would be best to arrive on time and not get in trouble for being late.

Putting the now empty cup of ramen in the bin he proceeded to head to his bedroom, where he happily put on the pants of his jumpsuit and the black t-shirt he usually wore under the jacket, his body dry courtesy of the time he had spent eating his meal.

Finally fully dressed, he placed a certain book in his pouch that was normally saved for ninja tools. The pouch was designed for a ninja to not only keep their kunai and shuriken at hand, but also any other piece of equipment as well, including scrolls and other such things dedicated to the art of Fūinjutsu. Finally ready, he finally left his apartment, locking the front door before taking off in a full out dash to the training ground he was supposed to meet his team at today.

If there was one thing Naruto was good at, it was running. He might not have been the fastest or the quickest to react but he was good at running for long periods of time without growing tired, combined with his ability to make sudden changes in direction it made him quite difficult to catch. Today however he wasn't running like he did before, he was running at full speed in a mad attempt of reaching the training ground in time, the burn of his body moving at speeds it wasn't used to coping with beginning to get to him as he made his way to the meeting place.

Once he arrived he wasn't at all surprised by the fact that both his teammates were already there and waiting for their sensei, he was usually the latest of the group, except on special days that is.

Looking at his teammates it was obvious that Sakura wasn't a morning person, the look in her eyes said it all, she wasn't in the mood for anything right now and probably just wanted to go back to her nice, comfortable bed instead of having to be here.

Sasuke was harder to tell, he was unable to decide if the last Uchiha was just being his usual brooding self or was instead sleeping on his feet while using the tree he was leaning against as support.

Either way, it was clear that neither wanted to be disturbed and for once he decided that he wouldn't annoy them, instead taking a seat against a tree separate from the rest and pulling the book out of his pouch. The action drew the attention of his teammates for an instant before they decided that whatever it was the blond was doing wasn't worth getting involved in.

Sometimes having a reputation as a prankster can work in your favour as Naruto found out when he was able to read in peace. He continued to read 'The Basics Of Chakra', the information it contained actually interesting him. He had never known that it was possible to fail a jutsu by putting too much chakra into it, that some techniques would actually overload while others would just get more powerful.

It told him that a person's ability to control their chakra regularly determined what sort of jutsu's they could learn and use, though it also mentioned that their chakra itself would also play a factor in that, with each person possessing a natural affinity towards a certain kind of technique, though it said that it would be covered in the later chapters that he hadn't yet reached.

XXX XXX XXX

Sakura couldn't help but feel nervous. Naruto appeared to be reading a book, something she had never expected to see him doing after he never did so much as take notes in the academy. Of course the first thing that came into her mind was that it was obviously a setup for some form of prank after all, that's all he was good for.

The worst part in her mind however was the fact that she didn't know if the prank required her to ask him about it, or ignore the fact he appeared to be reading, despite his usual display of intelligence he had shown the brains to outsmart Iruka with pranks and given that Iruka was easily the smartest person she knew, it truly did say something about her blond teammates skill in the art of traps.

She would admit that if Naruto made a trap it could prove to be quite formidable, however the problem was that he didn't seem to realise that he had that skill and never used traps in fights. To be perfectly honest, it infuriated her that the one thing he was incredibly skilled at was the one thing he never used, it was almost as if he wanted to be a complete failure.

Her mind would keep telling her to see what he was doing every time his facial expression changed to one of confusion but her fear of it being a prank prevented her, not that it mattered much anyway, every time his face took a confused expression he always changed to a thinking frown, evidence that he didn't do it much.

He would always end up with a look of realisation, though the time it took seemed almost random, as if he was genuinely confused and managing to get to an answer. Of course she refused to believe it, Naruto didn't read, that was a known fact of life, as certain as the fact that the current Hokage was an old man long past his prime.

So she sat, trying to ignore her blond teammate, which she began to find significantly easier when she decided to turn her attention towards her other teammate, the boy that she dreamed of marrying, Uchiha Sasuke.

XXX XXX XXX

Sasuke wasn't thinking of things like Sakura. Unlike her he caught a glimpse of the title before the blond had opened the book, so unlike her he understood what his other teammate was doing, he was finally deciding to take his career seriously and was finally prepared to study instead of waste time.

He didn't care, all it meant was that Naruto would end up less likely to get in his way like he would have before. All that mattered to him was that Kakashi gave him the training he needed, nothing else mattered in his eyes.

So far he was not impressed with their new sensei. This would be the third time in three days he was late and given the fact that they had only needed to meet him three times meant that so far he had been late 100% of the time, it did not sit well with the last Uchiha at all.

However he refused to let his irritation show, he was the avenger of the Uchiha clan and he would not let his hate spread to anyone except the man that had murdered everyone that meant anything to him.

XXX XXX XXX

Over two hours passed and Sakura was beginning to let her agitation at their sensei's tardiness show as she proceeded to twitch and fidget while muttering small curses under her breath, ready to pounce as soon as their silver haired sensei finally made his appearance in the training field.

Sasuke may have been equally annoyed but unlike his female teammate he refused to let anyone see his irritation as he continued to lean against the same tree he had been pressed against for several hours, he almost believed that when he left the tree there would be indentations to match the bark visible on his back.

Out of everyone though, it was Naruto that was perfectly calm. He was very happy that he had decided to bring the book with him since it gave him a distraction from the time as he calmly read through everything it told him, regularly freezing in an attempt to understand what it was the pages were telling him.

He had been pleasantly surprised with the second chapter, which explained the concept behind using chakra to augment taijutsu, that it could be used to strengthen the muscles and increase both strength and speed, or it could be collected at a small point and released on impact to act almost like a small explosion and greatly enhance a strikes strength.

He held no illusions though, from what the chapter told him, the second method required both immense control of their chakra and perfect timing to be capable of releasing it just at the moment of impact, instead of just before or just after, either of which would greatly decrease the damage done by the hit, meaning that the number of people that could use that method to its fullest was incredibly small.

"Yo," the sudden appearance caught the entire team off guard as their silver haired sensei appeared in the middle of the training ground, his infuriating eye smile adorning his face as he stood perfectly relaxed and two hours and twenty minutes late.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Kakashi couldn't stop himself from blinking several times as his mind pondered his pink haired students volume, he began to wonder if they had heard her over in Iwa however he decided to not mention it since they weren't on a mission.

"Sorry, I got lost on the road of life," his response held nothing but a minor amusement as he watched the only girl on his team sizzle with anger at his pathetic excuse while the others simply kept quiet.

The boy may not have been an open book but Kakashi was experienced enough to see the anger in Sasuke's eyes as he stared at him, it was obvious that the raven haired Uchiha was not happy with having to wait for hours, unfortunately he didn't care what his students thought of him right now, it's not like they had known each other long, they had only spoken for about ten minutes in total since they had first met each other.

It was when he looked at the final face in the group that he raised an eyebrow. Uzumaki Naruto possessed no traces of irritation or anger at him for being late, which was a complete turnaround from the other times they had met, this caused him to wonder why the boy seemed so calm right now.

It was then that he noticed the edge of a book jutting just out of the boy's pouch and he immediately understood, Naruto had arrived with something to do this time instead of simply waiting around thinking about how long he would be.

"Alright team, it is time for your first training session," immediately the group looked at him, the expectation clear in their eyes as he prepared himself to kill it with the one form of training that all children hate, "the focus will be teamwork."

The one eyed Jōnin couldn't help but feel a hint of satisfaction as he witnessed the spark die in the eyes of all three genin, their hopes of growing stronger individually shattered by that one statement, the satisfaction he received upon seeing the glare directed at him by his raven haired student was even greater and he let the boy know by giving one of his trademark eye smiles.

"Now the first thing I want you to do is line up next to each other, make sure you are close enough that you are touching, Sasuke, you can take the middle," the instructions were simple and earned a small groan from the young Uzumaki while the pink haired girl began to blush as the group lined up, with both Naruto and Sasuke showing a reluctance to touch each other, "good, now just stay still while I prepare the exercise."

There was not a single member of the trio that did not look worried when they witnessed their new sensei pulling several pieces of rope from his pouch, the last time he had had rope he had tied one of them to a log, so whatever he was planning could not be good.

Their eyes went wide when the masked man walked towards them, the only thing keeping them there being the fact that he was their superior officer and had told them to do so. However it was confusion that raked their brains when he leaned down and started tying their legs to each other.

When the man was finished Naruto and Sakura each had one leg tied to Sasuke while both his legs were tied to the others. Looking at the arrangement it didn't take long for anyone in the group to realise exactly why the cyclops had called this a teamwork exercise.

"Alright, the task is simple, all you have to do is one lap of the training ground in under five minutes, you will keep doing this until you have succeeded, any questions?" Kakashi may have said that they would keep doing it until they succeeded however he knew from experience how difficult co-ordinating three people like that was, with just two it is hard, with three the exercise becomes hellish, so he didn't expect them to succeed and instead decided within his mind that they would just keep trying until midday when they would take their first mission as team 7.

"Yeah I have one, are there any rules for this?" the whiskered genin asked as he prepared his mind to take note of the Jōnin's wording to see if there would be any loophole that could be exploited to make the exercise easier.

"Indeed there are, you are not allowed to carry each other and you are not allowed to do anything to remove the ropes keeping you together," once again the silver haired Jōnin felt a pang of satisfaction upon seeing the boy lose the glint in his eye, "then of course you have to run around the edge of the training field as opposed to several feet inside it, you aren't allowed to use bunshin or any other form of jutsu, to put it simply, you have to co-operate and run a full lap in under five minutes while tied together."

The trio could do nothing more than wonder why he was giving them such a random exercise, from what they could tell all they had to do was time their steps and everything would be easy. Or so they thought.

"You may start," it was a simple statement said with an eye smile that the man was infamous for, there were not many people that would believe a single eye could be so infuriating however they would quickly change their mind upon meeting the man.

As soon as the sentence left Kakashi's mouth, Sasuke attempted to dash off, ready to get what he considered to be a pointless exercise out of the way. Unfortunately for him his teammates weren't ready to start with him.

"W-what are you doing?!" was all Naruto could manage to spit out before the trio tripped up, the resulting pile up making the Jōnin chuckle at the sheer incompetence shown by the so called 'genius' that caused the entire group to fall over. If it was just one person tied to him then they could have compensated for the boy's brashness, however two people being forced to compensate for said actions made the exercise significantly more difficult.

"Dammit dobe, you were supposed to move your right leg then!" the dark haired boy shouted as his anger grew, he was not prepared to waste all day with this exercise simply because his 'teammates' couldn't keep up with him.

"How the hell was I supposed to know that teme! You didn't even take a minute to talk with us!" Kakashi was beginning to regret making the group perform this exercise, it appeared as though Sasuke and Naruto were both too volatile to co-operate despite the fact they belonged to the same team.

"Fine then, I'll move my left foot and then my right, you two just follow me," the prodigy stated as he managed to cool his head with a couple of deep breaths, regaining his composure and preparing himself for the next attempt at moving while tied together.

Taking a slow left step, Sasuke wasn't surprised when his blond teammate followed his foot before they placed it on the ground. Almost immediately the Uchiha followed up with his right foot, which his other teammate tried to follow to the best of her abilities, however they quickly found that the stride was too great for her.

Kakashi had to suppress a giggle at the mistake the girl that was supposed to be the smartest in their class had made. While Sasuke had put one foot forward she had ignored that and when she was finally ready to move with the boy, she had to cover approximately 50% more distance than the raven haired genin. Of course she wasn't going to make the stride.

"Dammit Sakura! What are you doing?!" it was obvious that Sasuke was very agitated at being forced to participate in team building exercises, Kakashi had originally believed that the boy might actually be prepared to work with others, however from what he was seeing right now, it would appear that he was wrong and the boy was too focused on personal power to accept the idea of a team.

"Hey! Don't shout at Sakura-chan like that you bastard!" the blond among the group shouted at the self appointed avenger in anger before the raven haired boy turned back to him and gave the boy he considered a tumour right now a death glare.

"Then get her to do this properly dobe!" Kakashi knew he shouldn't need to, however he found himself prepared to intervene at a moment's notice as he witnessed the last Uchiha losing his temper with his teammates. He was certain that if the third member of the team was anyone else this exercise wouldn't have been so bad, but unfortunately they had Sasuke and he was used to doing things alone.

"She is trying to do this properly! You're the one that isn't prepared to work with us!" Naruto shouted, his anger with his teammate rising as he heard the boy blame Sakura for something that was not her fault, he could tell that she was trying but that didn't seem to matter to the dark eyed teen.

"If you two would work properly I wouldn't need to!" before Naruto could come to blows with the raven haired genin again, he found someone else beating him to the punch.

"That is enough Sasuke!" the voice of their sensei rang out through the field, the tone in his voice telling all of them that he was actually angry for a change, "this exercise is for all of you to learn to work together, the reason you were put in the middle was because you need to realise that even more than your teammates."

All three genin could do nothing more than look down as their sensei made his point, despite her effort in trying to work with both her teammates, Sakura couldn't help but feel depression seeping in as the silver haired man made his statement.

In the back of her mind she couldn't help but think that her effort wasn't enough, that she was just slowing Sasuke down and that he had every right to snap at her for making such an obvious mistake.

Naruto however was not feeling depressed but was closer to feeling anger. Sasuke just kept snapping at everyone and seemed to ignore the idea that they were a team, that they were supposed to work together as opposed to simply follow him like he wanted them to. And now Kakashi appeared to be angry with both of them, probably because of the fact he kept retorting to the raven haired boys shouts.

Sasuke on the other hand couldn't bring himself to accept what he was being told. Sure he understood that teamwork was important for a ninja but training should have been used for skills instead of exercises that had no relevance to the real world.

That was what was annoying him, while he was here being forced to do something pointless, 'that man' was out there getting stronger his own way, if he didn't get proper training then the gap would never lessen and he would never manage to avenge his clan.

"At least Naruto and Sakura are trying to work with you, why can't you at least show them the same courtesy?" immediately the blond and pink haired genin widened their eyes, Kakashi was only angry with Sasuke, it wasn't something either of them were expecting.

Slowly Naruto began to understand. The exercise wasn't about speed or getting into a rhythm but rather, simply getting them to communicate. In order to work effectively in this situation they all needed to be capable of communicating the basic actions to each other so everyone knows exactly what they are supposed to do.

That also allowed the blond to understand why Kakashi wasn't angry with him for almost coming to blows with his raven haired teammate, it had only happened because the dark eyed boy didn't work with them like he was supposed to.

"Now why don't you three continue with the exercise and realise this Sasuke, the less you co-operate with the others, the longer you'll have to do this," the oldest in the training ground stated, causing the 'prodigy' to look away with a look of annoyance present on his face, even if he didn't like it he would just have to do it anyway.

"W-well, I've figured out what I did wrong," was the first thing Sakura said, causing both her teammates to look at each her, "both me and Naruto will have to move the same leg at the same time if we want to do this."

Although she didn't explain why, it didn't take a genius to figure out why she was right, as evident when Naruto managed to understand why after looking at their feet for a couple of seconds.

"Alright, let's try this again then, the sooner we've got this down, the sooner we can do something else," despite how much the sentence paralleled what Sasuke was thinking, it came from his spiky haired teammates mouth and earned two nods of agreement as the trio proceeded to try and do a lap of the training ground still tied together.

Their movement was slow and clumsy as they tried their best to walk in synchronisation with each other, their next hurdle being a simple turn to keep in line with the edge of the clearing, throughout it all the group proceeded to quietly pass instructions to each other as each movement was adjusted when necessary.

Above all however, the group was gradually growing less frustrated and annoyed with the exercise as they began to speed up, their minds starting to focus on the exercise at hand instead of what they would rather be doing and despite his lingering annoyance at not being given proper training, Sasuke couldn't deny that he was actually beginning to have fun.

A thought shot through his head, that he shouldn't have misdirected his anger like he had, that he should have tried to adjust himself to his teammates pace instead of expecting them to work at his speed. Somewhere in the back of his mind, hidden behind all his pride and hate, was a small voice, telling him to apologise to the rest of the group… of course it was quickly crushed by his pride.

Sakura was feeling much happier now, Sasuke was actually beginning to get into the exercise their sensei had given them and he no longer showed any hint of anger. She hadn't blamed him for his outbursts, she realised that he was simply frustrated by the fact he was having to do a teamwork exercise instead of getting tuition to help him improve further.

Out of all of them however, it was Naruto that was enjoying this exercise the most… and it was all because he got to shout at Sasuke and look at Sakura's legs most of the time. Sure he would've preferred it if he could've seen more but he wasn't complaining at what he was allowed to keep looking at.

It wasn't that Sakura had great legs or anything, he was simply biased towards her, he didn't know why but he knew he liked her hair and for some strange reason seemed to like her violent side. When he had asked the Hokage about it he had heard the man mutter that he was just like his father but didn't question it, from what he gathered his father liked exotic hair and violent women.

Kakashi was beginning to feel much more relaxed now, despite the teams initial setbacks, they had managed to get over their differences and actually start getting some coordination going on. It may not have been the best but in the end it was improving over time, though he was certain that there would be no chance of them breaking the five minute mark he had set before they went for their first mission.

Time passed slowly for the silver haired Jōnin as he simply stood at the start and finish point, a small stopwatch at his side counting higher as the group slowly made their way around the clearing, their speed gradually increasing as they began to get a rhythm going. It didn't take long for the team to finally reach the finish point, their breathing deep as the exercise made them move in ways that were not normal for the group.

"Congratulations… you took thirty seven minutes and forty two seconds," the simple statement made the teams jaws slacken as they began to realise how much time they had to save, what they forgot to consider however was the fact that the stop watch had been running since the man had told them to start, so it was including their falling over and the other argument that had occurred, "you only need to knock of thirty two minutes and forty two seconds to reach the target."

The trio could do nothing more than gape at the man when he said that without once looking up from his book. Unfortunately for them his free hand moved to the stop watch before with a couple of presses of the buttons their next lap was started, "begin."

For several hours the cycle kept repeating itself, their time gradually lowering as they began to speed up more and more, however despite their best efforts, they simply couldn't seem to get below the seven minute mark and it was beginning to grind at them as their sensei simply sat and kept his nose buried in his little orange book.

They had lost count of how many laps they had done, more because none of them wanted to know than the number, when they had started to stay at the same speed they had slowly stopped their counting as they put extra focus on increasing their speed.

Out of nowhere a loud ringing appeared, knocking them off their rhythm as they began to look for the source of the noise, quickly finding it with their sensei, a small alarm clock. Suddenly the trio began to wonder why he had been so late when he had literally had a clock with him the whole time, of course they didn't get long to ponder the obvious question when the man stood up and walked towards them.

"Alright, cut the rope, it's time for your first mission," the simple order caused three pairs of eyes to widen in surprise as they quickly drew their kunai and effortlessly split the rope, freeing them from their ridiculous proximity to each other, their first actions to be to distance themselves, though Sakura showed some reluctance, before following their sensei towards the village.

Within all their minds one thought was common and the one who decided to ask it was Sakura, her desire for knowledge overriding any qualms she may have had about reminding their sensei of his words to them.

"Uh, Kakashi-sensei, I thought you said we would have to keep doing that until we got under five minutes?" immediately the other members of the team tensed, they had hoped that the man had forgotten that statement.

"Yes I did say that didn't I," the silver haired adult replied with an eye smile, causing a small tremor of dread to pass through the genin present, "but I lied."

Instantly the trio stalled as their brains tried to process what the man had said before trying to process why he had lied to them about the exercise, it simply didn't make much sense to them, surely he could've just told them his real condition… right?

"What d you mean you lied?!" Naruto couldn't help it, he couldn't figure out why such a thing was necessary and the indignation in his voice told the older man that he wasn't happy at being tricked like that.

"What I mean is that I didn't tell you the truth, but if I had told you that you only had to do the exercise until midday would you have put as much effort into it?" the cycloptic ninja explained, nearly chuckling at the looks of realisation that dawned on his students faces as they finally understood his reasoning.

None of the children could bring themselves to respond to the man's question, after all, they knew he was right. They had pushed themselves as far as they had purely because they had wanted to finish the exercise, if they had known that it would end at the same time no matter what then they wouldn't have cared anywhere near as much about getting better and faster.

The rest of the trip was spent in silence as the team walked along the main road that ran down the centre of the village, regularly civilians would stop and let out a cold glare at the blond member of the group, only two of them knew the real reason behind those glares, Sakura and Sasuke simply believed the villagers hated him because of his pranks and although that contributed to his animosity, it wasn't the main factor.

The trip to the Hokages tower took too long for Naruto's liking, despite what he showed outside, the constant stares and glares did get to him, the constant feeling that he didn't truly belong here constantly presenting itself as he gave a wide grin in response to each glare sent his way, he wouldn't let them know that their eyes got to him, he would stay strong and become Hokage, then those glares would become something else, something far warmer.

They would become smiles of acceptance and respect, that is what they always gave the Hokage and that was why he wanted that hat. It had never once occurred to him that his way of thinking was completely wrong, that the old man had earned that respect before he received the hat that marked him as a Kage of one of the five greatest villages on the continent.

Although he refused to show it, Naruto couldn't help but feel relief upon reaching the centrepiece of the village, the massive tower that dominated the village and housed the Hokage. He could feel a hint of giddiness as the team climbed the stairs to the Hokages office, his teammates didn't feel the same way, they had only climbed these stairs once before and that was to get the picture for their ninja licence taken and to receive the official card that marked them as a ninja of Konohagakure no Sato.

Finally reaching a familiar door, Kakashi was about to give a simple knock when the door was flung open by his blond student. He had to admit that he was only slightly surprised when the boy strutted into the room like he owned it, not giving the pair of Chūnin assisting the aged leader a second glance as he walked right up to the desk.

"Hey Ojisan, what'cha got for us today?" almost immediately the whiskered genin found a relatively hard object slamming into the top of his head, or more specifically, Sakura's fist as she attempted to physically reprimand him for his lack of respect.

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama, he's just an idiot that doesn't know the first meaning of respect," the pinkette said in the hopes that the Hokage wouldn't take offence at the boy's antics. However she began to question the situation when none of the senior ninja's showed any form of surprise.

"I hope you understand the problem with simply barging in here and calling me Ojisan every time to show up," the Sandaime Hokage stated calmly, "not everyone is particularly accepting of your lack of manners."

The Hokage was an old man, despite the simple fact of him being far past his prime he was still powerful enough to be considered the strongest ninja in the village, even if all of that strength was contained purely in his skill as opposed to his raw power. His short but spiky white hair was currently hidden by the large conical hat he wore, a simple white design with a red triangular section on the front, the kanji for fire decorating the red section to indicate the man's status as the Hokage as opposed to Kazekage, Raikage, Tsuchikage or Mizukage.

On his chin was a small white goatee that made him look even older than he already did. His skin was marred with wrinkles and liver spots all over, however outside of his face, nothing else could be seen courtesy of the white and red robes he wore.

The final feature visible on the man was the simple pipe that rested between his lips, causing a steady stream of smoky clouds to escape the aged leaders lips as he puffed and savoured the tobacco's flavour before exhaling the harmful gas.

"Yeah yeah, whatever, I just don't see why I have to act like that around you when I'll be the one sitting in that seat soon!" Sakura couldn't believe the boy as he made his stand, however she decided to refrain from hitting him again when she noticed all the elder ninja sharing a chuckle.

"I'm sure you will Naruto-kun but first you'll have to get stronger, much stronger," the way the man had made this statement wonder if her blond teammate had some form of history with the elderly leader that she was unaware of, was it possible that she had misread the situation when they had entered?

"Of course I will! I'll be the greatest Hokage ever!" the sheer confidence the boy radiated when he made that claim almost made the girl do a double take. How could he honestly believe he even had a chance of becoming the Hokage when he was so… weak.

"Yeah right, like you'd ever become Hokage," it was a simple jab by the pink haired girl, muttered at a volume that could easily be missed in a louder room, however she had chosen the perfect moment to be heard when she had said that.

"What!" Naruto couldn't help but let the indignation consume his voice as the girls words reached his ears, despite everything he thought of the girl, he couldn't help but feel hurt when she made fun of him becoming Hokage, "what's wrong with me becoming Hokage?!"

Sakura actually questioned herself about if it was worth it to answer the boy and despite her lack of a sufficient conclusion, decided to anyway.

"Because you're weak, you're an idiot that would cause war simply by being yourself in important meetings and let's not forget your inability to take a hint," the girl stated harshly, causing the boy to flinch at each verbal jab she made against him.

"Well you won't be saying that when I become Hokage!" despite everything he couldn't help but respond the only way he knew how to when someone made fun of his goal, he never realised it but it had become his default comeback, even if it wasn't actually a comeback.

"Yeah, I'd probably have died of old age when that happens," once again the young girl couldn't stop herself, she realised that she may have been hurting him more than she did when she punched him but she honestly couldn't bring herself to imagine him as the Hokage, he simply wasn't Hokage material and he needed to realise that before he got others hurt over it.

The older ninja had to hold back their laughter as the blond started to splutter and showed obvious signs of trying to think of a comeback to what the girl had said, though it was obvious who the winner of their verbal exchange was.

Before the situation could get out of hand, Kakashi decided that it was time to deal with it. With a couple of calm steps he proceeded to place his hand on the blonds shoulder before saying a simple sentence that would delay the boy's retort even further and hopefully would make him forget the conversation altogether.

"Alright, why don't you two stop making fun of each other and let us get our first mission," the eye smile the man gave was noticeable to all in the room as the one he used to try and bring some order to a situation by letting everyone know that felt satisfied that whatever was happening had been dealt with.

And if anyone disagreed with him there was plenty of pain ready to be passed around.

Naruto didn't like the fact the man had stopped them when Sakura had gotten the last word, doing so made him feel like the loser and if there was one thing he hated, it was feeling like he had lost… it was that feeling that made him take advantage of the blackmail he had on Ebisu and right now, he had nothing to fall back on now this conversation was over.

Sakura however didn't really care, she had let the boy know what she thought of the idea of him becoming Hokage and if he didn't like it then that was his problem, not hers. Sure she would admit that people can change but as he was right now, there was no chance that her blond teammate would ever become Hokage and the only way he would manage that dream was if he changed almost completely and from what she knew of him, he was far too stubborn to change at all, let alone that much.

"Team seven, your first mission will be…" the Hokage started before making a dramatic pause, he loved how the expecting looks in the new eyes of new genin would suddenly vanish upon hearing the contents of their first mission. This group was no different, all three almost leaning forward in anticipation, "to clear an old ladies garden of weeds."

Silence reigned as the more experienced ninja tried to hold back their laughter at the look of total disbelief present on the children's faces as they processed the old man's words. After several minutes of silence, an idea popped into Sakura's head, she began to curse herself for not realising it sooner.

"Um, I'm not familiar with the code you're using Hokage-sama," that was it, the Chūnin could hold it in no longer and the hysterical laughter that was emitted from their mouths made the team of youngsters pause in thought for a second. None of them could see what was so funny, that is until the blond in the group suddenly understood the reality.

"It wasn't in code was it?" the spiky haired genin asked, already knowing the answer, after all, he was the biggest prankster in Konoha so he knew that sometimes the best prank was to do nothing.

"That is correct Naruto-kun, your mission is to weed a garden," the sheer fact that the aged leader said it that simply made the other members of team seven gape at the idea they were expected to do something so mundane now they were ninja.

"Alright team, let's go and get this over with, oh and Naruto, no kage bunshin, these are team building missions so you'll just have to work together," the eye smile Kakashi gave upon making this statement further emphasised the fact that he enjoyed crushing their hopes, at this rate they would never get stronger.

So it was with a heavy sigh, that the genin proceeded to give in to the fact that they were stuck weeding a garden and followed their sensei, each upset for their own reasons, Naruto because he wanted something challenging, Sasuke because he wanted to get stronger and this was just going to delay him even more and Sakura because she wasn't wearing the right clothes for gardening.

XXX XXX XXX

Sakura couldn't stop herself from letting out another deep sigh as she dragged another weed from the ground, trying her hardest to bring the roots with it. She had never imagined that being a ninja could be so boring but here she was being proven wrong. She still couldn't believe that ninja were hired to do everyday chores like this, it just seemed like a complete waste of money for the clients when they could do it themselves.

The young girl proceeded to glance at her other teammates, Sasuke was wearing a scowl like she had expected, the boy was far too good for a mission like this, that she was certain of but it appeared that both the Hokage and Kakashi-sensei disagreed with that belief, otherwise they would've given the group a higher ranked mission with more danger involved.

Shifting her gaze to the blond boy, she had to do a double take on what she had just seen. Instead of the same bored expression that adorned the faces of Sasuke and herself, the look on the blonds face was one of determination. It took her awhile to figure out what he was doing when instead of getting on his knees like the others, he remained standing before leaning forward to latch onto the base of the offending foliage, before a violent twist proceeded to tear the weed from the ground, the dirt flying off the roots as the boy appeared to put his entire body into the action.

It confused her as she wondered why he was doing it that way, wasn't it easier to just do it the way she and Sasuke were doing it? Glancing at the Jōnin who had decided to read his book instead of help, she saw something she hadn't seen in his eye before, curiosity. It caught the young girl off guard as she noticed the man examining the orange clad boy with his only eye, it was almost as if he knew what Naruto was up to.

Once again she proceeded to watch the boy as he removed weed after weed with the exaggerated movement, each twist easily breaking the ground the weeds were located as he continued his strange routine. She thought his movement was unusual and unnecessary as he put significant effort into removing each perennial he came across.

Naruto didn't realise he was being watched as he proceeded to remove the weeds, he may have been unhappy with the mission and what it entailed however it did give him a chance to practice twisting his body, something he needed to be good at to use his new punch effectively. Of course he didn't care if he was being watched, he had never heard of ninja using a punch like that so he was pretty sure he had inadvertently created a new taijutsu technique from scratch.

He knew that the way he was doing it was much harder than simply getting on his knees and pulling the weeds up, however doing it the easy way would've just made the whole mission boring, so he had chosen to do it this significantly harder way.

Already he was beginning to feel the strain on his muscles from the sharp twists he kept making, the unusual movements forcing the muscles to work in ways they weren't used to and therefore not strengthened against. He didn't mind, he knew that the burn just meant he was getting more used to using his new technique and that when he had practiced it enough it would stop causing the strain it did now.

And with that thought flowing through his mind, he kept going, the mundane job of weeding a garden becoming just another training exercise in his mind… and he always liked training exercises.

Kakashi's lone eye followed the blond, taking note of the twisting he was putting into his body, he knew exactly what it meant and knew that the boy had already taken some form of initiative and started to improve his taijutsu. The fact that the blond had also turned the mundane job of weeding the garden into a form of training exercise also showed that the blond was currently the best in the group, not because of his skills but because he was prepared to make a simple job harder in order to train.

The only thought that concerned the masked Jōnin was if the blond realised the problem with the technique he was practicing and even more importantly, where he had learned of the punch, after all, it wasn't the sort of punch a ninja used under normal circumstances, he only knew of one person that used it and his usage of it was extremely rare.

He knew for a fact that every technique had a weakness, whether it be Tai, nin, gen, ken or Fūinjutsu, the mark of a skilled shinobi was learning to cover for that weakness. He had needed to learn how to deal with his Raikiri's tunnel vision drawback, his left eye was a surgically transplanted counter to that weakness but even with it he still tended to use his summons to restrain a target before attempting the extremely powerful jutsu.

Despite his distraction on the blond, he knew that his pink haired student had looked at both of them, the look of confusion adorning her face was easily detectable, Kakashi realised that the entire team would have to learn how to hide their emotions better than they currently could, looking at them right now was like reading a kiddies book, pathetically easy.

Refocusing on the blond, he made his decision, once the team had finished this mission and received their payment, he would speak with the blond concerning the corkscrew blows. With his mind made up, he decided that Icha Icha needed more of his love and happily gave it his full attention once again.

The Jōnin knew that the mission wouldn't take much longer, the genin had each cleared the majority of their sections, with just a few more weeds left, he would be surprised if it took them five more minutes to finish off the task at hand.

He wasn't disappointed when the group finished, the garden completely clear of weeds, though there were countless miniscule patches of upturned dirt from where the roots used to lay. Fortunately the client had simply hired them to clear the lawn of weeds, not make it look nice and pretty, so they had fulfilled their end of the contract. All that was left to do was report that the task had been completed to the client and to receive their payment from the Hokage.

After the small team had gathered together in front of him, their young faces expecting new orders, Kakashi immediately moved towards the clients door and gave a simple pair of knocks. The group was forced to wait about two minutes, though the lack of anything to do made it feel significantly longer, before the client opened the door.

She was obviously old, possibly the same age as the Hokage if not older. Her eyes were kept in small slits behind a simple set of circular spectacles, while a plain brown Kimono hid her form from the children.

Before the Jōnin could say anything to the women, she walked straight past him and immediately started scanning the lawn, the only indication that she was looking at it being the systematic swaying her head made as she looked over every inch of the children's work.

"Hmph, it'll do," were the only words to leave the elderly woman's mouth before she headed straight back to her house and slamming the door on the ninja, obviously not caring about them one little bit. The next thing the genin heard was a small sigh from their sensei before he turned to face them.

"Here's a tip for you, don't kill rude clients," the genin couldn't help but blanch at that piece of advice, it just seemed like such an obvious thing to follow but the way the man said it, they began to wonder just how bad some of these people were, "oh and try to be polite to them, even if you hate their guts."

Once again the genin couldn't help but feel like the man was just stating the obvious, well apart from Naruto but then again, he didn't show anyone respect and didn't like being polite so it just sounded weird to him.

"Well come on, let's go and get paid," for once the group agreed, they all had better things to do than stand around talking about clients and standard procedure for dealing with them.

XXX XXX XXX

Excitement flooded Naruto's body as he walked out of the Hokage's office with his first ever payslip, it may not have been much but it was his first payslip for completing a mission as a ninja of Konoha, so that alone held a deep significance to him.

Of course he had to deposit it in the bank in order for it to actually be worth any money, which in turn meant he couldn't keep the slip itself. But it was his first payslip and it didn't have much monetary value, that fact alone made him consider something that most would say was stupid, he was thinking of keeping it and not putting it in the bank.

Now he was a genin he had been given access to the money his parents had stashed away, it wasn't a fortune by any means but it was more than enough to buy him some new clothes and keep him fed for a couple of years, that is, if he didn't buy other things.

It also proved to him that his parents had been successful ninja, they had managed to save up enough money from missions that the Hokage could use it to buy a flat in the boys name with it, feed him for the first twelve years of his life, pay for the damages his pranks caused, buy him clothes and ninja tools and still have enough left over for more if it was needed.

Of course the aged leader had drilled the value of money into the boy from a young age, giving him just enough to get by and letting him deal with it instead of giving him a constant supply of cash with which to live off of.

Remembering what the man had done, Naruto couldn't help but dismiss his original idea, every little bit of money would add up and allow him to live better than if he left it for sentimental reasons.

He was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts when a hand landed on his shoulder, stopping him from moving any further forward. Immediately he began to panic, whenever someone stopped him it was usually to get revenge for a prank he had played before, so before anything else could happen he shot around and just as he was prepared to strike at every males weakest area, he froze upon seeing the masked face of his new sensei.

"Well that was a rather violent reaction," the Jōnin stated when he saw where the boy had aimed his fist, "and here I was going to talk with you about your taijutsu."

Naruto couldn't stop himself from chuckling nervously as he changed the positioning of his arm so as to no longer be aimed towards his sensei's more sensitive area, "hehe, sorry Kakashi-sensei, it's just a reflex," that statement didn't make the silver haired ninja feel any better about the previous interaction however and even Naruto could tell that the man wasn't exactly amused… though he couldn't tell what the man was from the blank stare he received.

After several seconds the man's words finally hit him, he wanted to talk about his taijutsu.

"I know I wasn't good in the exam but I'm going to get better, please just trust me," the child's reaction made the masked Jōnin blink a couple of times as he wondered why the child had thought he was angry about that, everyone had to start somewhere.

"Yes, I can tell, what I meant was the technique you were practicing during the mission," the shock present on the blonds face was effortless to read even in the eyes of a civilian, let alone an experienced ninja, "who taught you that style of punch?"

Naruto's mind went blank, his sensei had just asked him who had taught him his new punch, if that was the case then was it not as unique as he had concluded? Did Kakashi-sensei know about it? And if so why didn't he use it? There were so many questions and he wanted answers, however the problem was knowing which question to ask first. Or then again he could just answer his sensei's question first and then choose which question to ask.

"I was practicing the first two rules of taijutsu when I found that punch," it was a perfectly honest answer, the book had never told him to twist his body and he had ended up doing that as an experiment and it had worked, so he had kept practicing it.

"You mean you recreated it on your own?" earning a simple nod from his blond student, the former ANBU captain couldn't help but feel a little shock flow through his body, there weren't many people that would figure out a punch like that from just the first two rules of taijutsu, "tell me, have you figured out its weakness and why most ninja don't use it?"

Naruto froze, his punch had a weakness that stopped most ninja from using it, if that was the case then just how dangerous a weakness was it to put such a powerful punch out of use?

"W-what is its weakness?" Kakashi could hear the dread in the boys voice, he obviously didn't have a clue that the strike had a weakness if his current reaction was anything to go by.

"Tell me, how do you perform the punch?" it was a very simple question, however if the boy could explain the method behind the punch then he could see the weakness, the one that most ninja avoid like the plague.

"Well… first you put your feet on the gr…" the look of realisation that took over the blonds face when he started explaining the punch was purely incredible, the punch had such an obvious flaw that he had completely overlooked it.

"I see you've already figured it out, the corkscrew blow requires you to plant your feet and sacrifice mobility in order to put enormous power behind it," Naruto couldn't argue with his sensei's statement, he couldn't believe he had never noticed it before and was beginning to regret putting so much effort into practicing the punch.

"So, it's useless," such a sudden conclusion made Kakashi sigh in annoyance, the child obviously needed an important lesson concerning being a ninja and he was going to have to teach him that lesson.

"No it isn't," the whiskered blond couldn't help but look at the man with confusion etched onto his face when he made that statement, "no matter what you use, whether it be tai, nin or genjutsu, there will always be a weakness that can be exploited, the mark of a skilled ninja is the ability to realise these weaknesses and either cover them or take advantage of them."

Naruto couldn't stop himself from looking at the man in awe, despite his earlier actions the man now looked and sounded like a true ninja and the advice he had given made sense, there was obviously no perfect technique otherwise everyone would try and learn it and he didn't know of a single jutsu everyone wanted to know.

"If you want to use the corkscrew blow then I would advise you to buy some form of armour, that would remove your need of being completely mobile and allow you to survive against more agile targets as long as you manage to avoid anything aimed at your vitals," once again Naruto couldn't help but feel he had misread his new sensei, he actually seemed to be happy to help him, even going so far as to stop him to tell him the weakness of his newest technique.

Kakashi was beginning to feel nervous, the boy in front of him was shaking, the child may not have recognised him but he had met the boy several times before back when he was in ANBU and he recognised this shaking. It wasn't the shaking of Naruto when he was crying or angry… it was the shaking of Naruto when he's trying to stop himself from pouncing at you and smothering you to death.

"Well, if that's all, I'll be going now, see you tomorrow Naruto," and before the whiskered blond could do anything, the man had vanished in a swirl of leaves, leaving the boy alone with no one to hug.

Taking several deep breaths, Naruto managed to calm himself down to a point where he no longer needed to launch himself at someone and with a clear head he began to check off the tasks he still needed to do today.

First there was deposit his payslip and withdraw some money, he needed enough to be capable of buying proper clothes for missions so he would have to withdraw more than he normally would, then he would have to find a good clothing store for ninja's, possibly one that sold armour since Kakashi-sensei had advised him to buy some if he wanted to use his new punch. Once he had done those two tasks, he would have the rest of the day to eat and train, so all in all, he felt as though he was going to have a good day for a change.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto wouldn't admit it out loud but he liked going to the bank. It did two things for him, it made him feel like he had money to his name and the more important reason was the clerks. The number of women with amazing figures that worked in the bank was unbelievable and being the little pervert he was, that always made his visits there so much better.

Sure he liked Sakura but he was always happy to ogle any beautiful woman that he could, well except Ichiraku Ayame but he had thought of her as a sister for too long to think of her any differently, a sentiment she seemed to share.

As it stood right now, he had finished ogling the women and had left the bank, a large wad of cash filling his little toad wallet that he affectionately called 'gama-chan' and was calmly walking along the street, looking at every stall and down every ally in an attempt to find a good shinobi store.

People all along the street began to express concern as they witnessed the biggest prankster in Konoha looking for something, whatever he was after would make some peoples' lives hell, that was for certain in their minds.

After nearly half an hour of searching he finally found something that looked like it would sell everything he needed, the only reason he didn't go to the place he bought his kunai and shuriken was because it only stocked weapons, so given the fact he wasn't after that sort of product meant he had to find somewhere else.

The store he found seemed decent enough, a large sign that read 'Higarashi weapons and armour' decorated the front of the shop and let everyone know exactly what it did. His heart began to beat faster as his mind began to focus on the fact that he was here to replace his precious jumpsuit, hopefully there would be something that would allow him to retain a bit of orange while still making him less visible.

Taking a deep breath, the short blond made his first step into the store, his eyes scanning over the products on display. He had seen the clothing racks through the window so he had known that the place sold clothes suitable for shinobi. Now that he was inside he could see the large selection of weapons and ANBU style armour hanging off the walls.

His head moved from side to side in wonder as he scanned the wares, unaware of a single pair of eyes watching his every move as he ogled the selection in front of him. Suddenly his head snapped towards something that caught his eye, hanging from a clothing rack was a large selection of trench coats in all different sizes. They came in several colours, including white, black, blue, red, purple and a dark orange.

It was not like the orange that dominated his jumpsuit, his jumpsuit was loud and bright, almost like a sign trying to attract attention, while the orange on the trench coats was so dark that if it was any darker it would have probably been confused with brown. However it was clearly orange.

Almost as if mesmerised, the blond started to walk over to the racking, his hand reaching out to touch one of the orange coats when he was snapped out of his trance by a gruff voice.

"Be careful, they're heavier than they look," the call caused the blond to jerk his head towards the counter behind him. The problem with selling to ninja is that if they do a runner, you tend to fare better with a head start so many stores in Konoha had the counter close to the exit.

"S-sorry, I didn't see you there," the spiky haired genin said nervously upon seeing the man. He was a giant of a man, easily the same height as Kakashi and about three times wider, if Naruto was to compare him to something, he would've said a brick house, the man simply gave the impression that he could snap an experienced ninja like a twig if he wanted to. He had pitch black hair and a thick beard that hid half his face almost as well as Kakashi's mask, he was dressed in a simple Kosode and Hakama combo that was less ornate than anything he sold.

"I didnae expect ya tae, ya were tae busy starin at me wares to notice me back ere," the large man responded calmly, he may not have been talking like a normal person but Naruto was capable of telling that the man had no ill will in his voice.

"What did you mean about these coats being heavier than they look?" it was a simple question from the blond as he tried his luck getting information out of the obvious owner of the store.

"Me own creation, not many ninja buy it though, tae heavy, cuts down their speed," the dark haired man stated with a sigh, he had thought it was a good idea at the time, however as he had soon discovered, it didn't' sell because of its weight.

"Why's it so heavy?" the blond asked as he picked an orange coat about the right size for him off the rack, immediately discovering what the man meant when he had said it was heavier than it looked. He wouldn't have been surprised if the thing weighed over forty pounds given the fact his arms could barely hold it up.

"It's lined wih chainmail," the sudden widening of the child's eyes almost made the older man laugh, he hadn't seen such a comic expression in quite some time, "tis flexible, good at absorbin impacts an stopping blades."

"Really? I thought chainmail was supposed to be weak?" Naruto asked the man, he had heard of the term before and wondered what the deal with the coat was, after all, if it was that heavy and was as weak as chainmail was supposed to be then why would anyone want it?

"Dat's thin chainmail, dat sorta thing isn't heavy or durable, shatters cause the metals tae thin," the bear of a man said with a bit of distaste in his voice, "tha stuff in dat coat is about an inch thick, an eld together close enough dat things like kunai cannae get through the gaps… plus da metal used is chakra conductive, makes it even harder when chakra's put in it."

Naruto couldn't help but feel a small burst of confidence when he tried the coat on, the heavy garment fitting his shoulders nicely, though he did discover that although the joints were flexible, the rest of it wasn't as fluid in its movement, often stopping when the links lost space to move closer to each other.

The large man began to look at the boy with interest as he watched the child try on the coat before adopting a flat footed stance. He watched with a critical eye when the boy started twisting his body into a punch that flew forward with more power than before, the extra weight adding to the destructive power of the strike.

Naruto could feel it, the coat was just what he needed, the extra weight would add to the destructive power of his punches while the armour would protect him while he planted his feet, plus it was orange, so that was a bonus. Looking at the price tag, it was obvious that the owner just wanted to get rid of the things, their price lower than most of the other clothing, indication that people simply didn't want to buy what for most of them was simply impractical.

Deciding that he was definitely going to buy the armoured coat, the whiskered genin moved over to some of the other clothing racks, he had already found something orange so the rest didn't matter as much, several sets of the standard Chūnin style of clothing would work just fine for him.

A simple set of dark pants and shirt was all he really needed right now, however the shopkeeper wasn't one to lose a possible extra sale when the opportunity arose.

"I saw that punch o yers, very powerful," immediately alarm bells rang in the blonds head as the man started talking up his skills, "given what I seen o you so far I would guess ye are a power type fighter, am I right?"

Thinking things over, Naruto couldn't help but agree with the man's statement, he was buying the coat to compensate for his lack of mobility when using his new favourite punch so what the man was saying was probably correct, "I guess so."

"Ever thought o buyin a Zanbatō? They're perfect fer a power type, just swing an if ye hit, chances are, ye won," the man said with a small smile and a glint in his eyes, which grew when he saw the boy contemplate the suggestion.

Naruto may have been contemplating the suggestion, however there was one thing that made up his mind, the fact that he had enough to learn already without having to add kenjutsu to the mix, so the decision became clear quite quickly.

"No thanks, I've got enough I have to learn right now, perhaps when I'm older," the answer was genuine and the massive man could tell that the boy was telling the truth when he said that, so letting out a deep sigh he decided to let the boy be.

"Cannae blame me fer tryin," the joking tone the man said it in made the young boy smile and let out a small chuckle, the owner seemed like a good guy despite his intimidating stature.

"Nope, ya gotta make a living somehow. So how much does this come to?" Naruto asked, already getting out gama-chan in order to pay for the clothing and coat.

"Dat'll be 3,170 ryō," the older man said calmly, happily taking the money as the boy placed it on the counter, earning a nod off the owner when he had finished counting the money he was given, "nice doin business wit ya."

"Same here, see ya next time I need something," and with that statement, the blond left the shop, his new clothes in his arms as he began to adjust to the weight of his new coat.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto had to admit, Ichiraku's tasted even better when he was completely drained. Once he had left the store he had immediately started running to his apartment to put his new clothes away before heading to the training grounds.

The problem of course was that he wasn't used to the weight of the coat he was currently wearing. Despite what he had initially thought, it was proving to be much more tiring wearing it than he had imagined, something that was further emphasised when he had started practicing his taijutsu in a training field outside the village.

Instead of simply practicing his punches he had proceeded to try and figure out how to put real power into his kicks and was not having much luck outside of charging his legs with chakra, even if doing so didn't so much for his technique as it did for learning how to increase his strength with his rather formidable chakra supply.

Of course doing that meant that he had not only grown physically tired but had also lost quite a bit of chakra as well. So right now he was happily devouring the bowls of ramen under his nose as he attempted to recover enough strength to make his way home.

The contented look on his face didn't go unnoticed by the owner though, he remembered that the last time he had been in the stand he had been depressed over the genin exam. Despite how much he wanted to learn why the boy had done a complete one eighty, which combined with his new piece of clothing caused the man to open his mouth in order to sate his curiosity.

"You look awfully chirpy today, did something happen?" immediately the blond looked up, still shovelling noodles into his mouth before swallowing the large volume of food and opening his mouth to answer.

"Yeah, someone gave me some help yesterday, so I'm getting stronger now!" the enthusiastic response was much closer to the Naruto he had grown attached to, yesterday had been as if someone had tried impersonating him poorly, "plus I completed my first mission today!"

"You did huh? so what did you think of the 'notoriously difficult D rank missions'?" the sarcasm that dripped from the chefs voice told Naruto that the man had either requested or heard others complain about them quite regularly, "so what were you expected to push yourself with? Painting a fence? Watering a garden? Finding a lost pet?"

"Nah, weeding a rude old lady's garden," the whiskered teen stated after taking another gulp of the noodles he lived off of, earning a nod off of the ramen chef before Naruto remembered another thing, "oh yeah, Kakashi-sensei said that we should try our best to not kill the clients even if we hate them."

That earned a laugh from the older of the two, he had heard plenty of ninja complaining about clients before, from what he could tell most people seemed to believe that since they had bought the shinobi's services, the ninja didn't need to be treated with any hospitality, rarely ever thinking about the simple fact that the people they hired were trained killers and could easily snuff them out when no-one was looking and no-one would be the wiser.

"Yeah, I've heard that there are plenty of clients that come close to losing their heads like that," Teuchi couldn't stop himself from laughing when the boy nearly choked on his meal, the laughter started by the older man's statement almost ending him, "so how's your team? You mentioned Sasuke was with ya but you never said anything about the other member."

"It's Sakura-chan!" the glee that filled the young Uzumaki's voice upon making that statement was enough to light the village if it could be converted into electricity. The older man knew why, the child had an unhealthy obsession with the pink haired girl, he knew that the boy was simply taking after his father but out of all the things the child could've inherited, why did it have to be the attraction to violent women?

"I see, then I guess you're at least happy with that part of your team," Teuchi was more than capable of realising that the boy would be happy being teamed up with his crush, he was also smart enough to know that the girl was surprisingly similar to the boy, possessing an unhealthy obsession with a specific member of the opposite sex, "I take it you'd rather have anyone except Sasuke as your other teammate, am I right?"

"Yeah, that teme just kept making problems during our training earlier," the obvious dislike in the boys voice making it clear that he did not like the raven haired boy one little bit, "and he shouted at Sakura-chan."

The ramen chef may not have approved of the boys crush, the girl was too obsessed with the last Uchiha for purely cosmetic reasons for his liking, however he knew that Naruto was similar in his crush on her, though one of the things involved in that was her temper, which wasn't exactly cosmetic, the important part however was that shouting at or trying to harm her immediately put you on the blonds hit list. For that reason alone, he felt pity for the young Uchiha… being on Naruto's hit list was possibly the worst place to be, even the Hokage feared being put on it and he was the strongest ninja in the village.

"That's not good, shouting at your own teammates isn't the best way for ninja to work," he stated, covering his opinions, he knew that blond wouldn't listen to him even if he voiced them, his obsession of the girl was simply too great.

"All she was doing was trying to complete the exercise and he was the one that wouldn't work with us," the anger was easy to notice in the blue eyed teens voice, it was obvious that Sasuke didn't take the genin exam to heart like he had.

"I guess it was a team building exercise then," the chef enquired, earning a curt nod of confirmation in response as the boy began devouring his fifth bowl of noodles, "so what's with your new jacket? It's a lot subtler than your jumpsuit."

"Huh? yeah, I decided I needed some darker clothes if I'm going to be a ninja and this was cool, plus it works for the new style I'm learning," the young boy stated before he drank the broth left in the bottom of the bowl.

"Hah, sounds like there's something up with it outside of it being orange," once again the older man started preparing another bowl of the noodles, ready for the boy to finish the one he had prepared for after the one he was finishing just now.

"Yeah, it's armoured," Naruto stated as he proceeded to accept the next bowl, happily shovelling it into his mouth, "my new style stops me from moving when I'm attacking so I got this to protect me when I try to hit someone."

Teuchi couldn't help but make a blank face upon hearing that, from what he was aware ninja tended to try and keep moving so they took less damage, it was samurai and bodyguards that tended to fight with that type of style, though they also tended to wear much larger armours that gave much better all round protection than a jacket.

The man dismissed that thought, the boy tended to be too stubborn to listen to opinions like that, if anything it just made the boy even more determined to prove the doubters wrong.

"That sounds interesting, I wonder how it'll hold up against quick enemies though?" even if the boy wouldn't listen to opinions, phrasing it like a question would at least make the boy think on it, which judging by the boy's sudden scrunch of his face had already worked.

"I don't know but I'll think of a way to deal with any speedy bastards that try to beat me," the massive grin that threatened to split the blonds face in two when he said that showed that he was confident that there was a way to win against people that kept moving when attacking.

"I'm sure you will," the blonds' confidence was contagious and Teuchi couldn't help but feel that his favourite customer would find a way to do what he claimed, it wouldn't be the first time he had actually succeeded at something, his 'kage killer' jutsu had actually defeated the Sandaime after all.

And so with a small smile etched onto his face, the older man continued to serve his favourite customer until the boy finally told him that the next bowl would be the final order.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto couldn't help but pant when he finally made it back to his apartment. He had never thought that climbing the stairs would be so hard but the extra weight he was wearing in his coat proved to be much harder to carry than he had anticipated.

Closing the front door, the first thing he did was slip his new coat off his shoulders, flinching upon hearing the loud thud of it impacting on the floor. He would've put it on his coat hook, however he didn't want to risk the hook being ripped off the wall by the piece of clothing's incredible weight.

As soon as he made his next step he almost felt like he didn't weigh anything, his body no longer having to lug that coats extra weight around. It might not have been the heaviest thing he had ever lifted but walking around and training with it on was much harder than just moving it from one place to another.

Putting his pouch on the table, the young boy proceeded to head straight to his bedroom and instead of training, he simply let himself fall flat on his face, his soft bed supporting his tired and aching body as he let sleep claim him.


	3. Chapter 3

Double strength black coffee and a simple bowl of cereal. That was what was going to be his breakfast this morning as he sat at his small table, his mind barely operational as he looked at the books he had yet to read more than two chapters of. The reason for his lack of progress was perfectly reasonable, he wasn't just reading them, he was constantly trying to understand them and apply what he discovered to real life which was much more difficult.

Of course it would do nothing for him if he couldn't move properly because of the extra weight his new armour added to him, it was that revelation that made him look at the dark orange coat that lay crumpled on the floor.

Was it really worth it to use it? Sure Kakashi had advised him to get some armour but would he have been better off getting lighter stuff and forgoing the extra protection? Even if it was he wouldn't change his mind now, he had told Teuchi-ojisan that he would find a way to make up for his coats weight and the amount it would decrease his mobility and Uzumaki Naruto never goes back on his word.

Slowly opening 'The Foundations Of Taijutsu' once again, his cloudy mind started to clear as he read the words, forcing his mind to decipher the meaning behind every syllable, pushing himself to understand the teachings that the book was trying to pass onto whoever was reading it.

"_There are three main types of taijutsu, offensive, defensive and neutral. Offensive styles are usually utilised by individuals that focus on speed and rarely possess defensive stances, preferring to avoid attacks and continue their assault at a fast pace so that their opponent does not have the time to respond. Defensive styles are usually utilised by people that possess raw strength but lack the speed to hit their opponents," _upon reading that the blonds mind finally jumped to complete attention as he recognised the description of himself, _"they tend to focus less on attacking the opponent and instead they lay in wait for their opponent to enter their own distance, blocking any attacks and countering the enemy with deadly blows. Neutral styles, as the name would suggest, focus on both offense and defence and are usually used by people that lack both immense strength or immense speed."_

"_Note: when not sparring, taijutsu is not recommended and a ninja should only resort to it in the event of being disarmed."_

Naruto blinked once. He blinked twice and his mind processed the note a second time, coming to the same conclusion as it did first time around, the book was saying that he shouldn't use taijutsu in combat unless it was absolutely necessary. If that was the case then why did they keep teaching it at the academy? Why did nearly everyone focus on it instead of ninjutsu? Unfortunately his mind was too tired to notice the important part of the statement, 'in the event of being disarmed'.

Deciding to ask Kakashi-sensei about it later the blond finished off his breakfast, leaving his dirty dishes laying on the table as he put the books in his pouch and put on his coat, a watch decorating his left wrist just so he knew how much time he had left.

Finally prepared to start the day, the spiky haired blond left his apartment, the clock reading 5:30am as he locked his door and left the complex in a light jog, ready to get some light exercise in before meeting his team.

He wouldn't deny, even a light jog was proving difficult as he wore the extra weight of his new coat made his legs work harder than normal just to support the mass above them. After only fifteen minutes he was already feeling a burn in his legs as he made his way out of the gates and prepared himself to run a lap around the village, knowing that he would face hell once he reached the stairs that led to the top of the hokage monument.

As he ran his mind couldn't help but focus on his legs as they protested their current state of use, screaming out as they burned under the new strain they were being forced to endure. For a moment the spiky haired blond considered putting a little bit of practice into pumping chakra to strengthen his muscles but almost immediately shook his head clear of such a thought, he was doing this to build up his muscles and pumping chakra into them would just make the exercise less effective.

So he simply choose to do his best to ignore his legs protests as he ran, further and further, occasionally glancing at his watch to make sure he had enough time to reach the training ground, even if Kakashi-sensei was always late there was always the chance that he would be on time for once and the blond didn't want to be late if that was the case.

Besides, even if the man was late, it would just give him time to recover from his morning exercise before team training. He was certain he was going to need it.

XXX XXX XXX

His entire body ached by the time he finished his lap and made his way to the training ground, ready to just collapse in a heap where he stood but he persevered, he wouldn't let a single lap of the village beat him, even if he was weighed down by his coat.

He arrived with over fifteen minutes to spare, too early for either of his teammates to be present, so he did what came naturally to anyone that was completely exhausted, he collapsed, using a tree as support to prevent him from simply falling over. Almost immediately he felt his eyes grow heavy before he decided that he could do with a quick nap and promptly closed his sight off from the outside world.

It felt almost instantaneous when he was shook awake by a girl with a familiar length of pink hair, his mind quickly clearing as he looked at his teammates surrounding the clearing, Kakashi-sensei standing with what he believed was a blank look adorning his eye.

"Well then, now that sleeping beauty is awake, we can proceed with your training," the silver haired Jōnin stated with a hint of amusement in his voice, earning exasperated sighs off the genin as they proceeded to make their way to the man to receive their instructions, Naruto giving a quick glance towards his watch to discover he had been asleep for over two hours, which in turn explained why his muscles were feeling stiff but were no longer in pain.

He suppressed a grimace upon realising that he had missed an entire two hours of study because of his nap, still, at least he had gotten some training in despite that so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Kakashi noticed his blond student try to suppress a grimace however he hadn't done so as well as he had hoped. The Jōnin figured that the boy had done some form of morning exercise and had arrived at the training ground near exhaustion resulting in him falling asleep and missing out on some reading. Of course that made no difference to the Jōnin so he did what he had planned to do anyway.

"Okay, now unlike yesterday you won't be working on teamwork today, instead I think it would be beneficial to start training you in hiding your emotions… and yes that includes you Sasuke, despite what you might think you aren't that good at hiding your emotions," the cycloptic Jōnin stated calmly, earning a short grunt from the raven haired child.

Kakashi could see the entire team displaying reluctance at the idea of spending their time training themselves to stare blankly but they would come to understand why he was doing this with them when they got older and learned that hiding emotions involved more than just staring into space, after all, even he had bluffed his way to victory on several occasions by making his opponents think he thought nothing of them and hiding the fact he was nearing exhaustion.

Of course little kids didn't realise that this stuff was even more important than flashy jutsu or amazing taijutsu, over exuberance was one of the major flaws of youth however it had been proven time and time again that once a child reaches a certain age the ability to develop chakra coils was eliminated and the chances of becoming a ninja were reduced to nearly zero.

It did annoy him that the academy didn't teach them for a few more years, teaching them more than just history and the odd bit of physical conditioning. It wouldn't have been that hard to teach the children about emotional control, it wouldn't be that big a problem to give them experience in killing, the number of bandits that roamed the land wasn't exactly low, so capturing a few for a class to execute wouldn't be that hard and it would also reduce the number of casualties from freezing after their first kill and also give Jōnin sensei less work in dealing with emotional repercussions.

Still, he wasn't in charge of the academy and had no say in the curriculum so he would just have to deal with what they had sent him, which wasn't a lot at all, sure all three had plenty of potential but then again, so did every kid under fifteen.

"So are you three ready to learn how to control your emotions?" he asked the group with an eye smile as he looked at the group savouring their disappointed looks, that is until he noticed a look of minor confusion on Naruto's face.

"Kakashi-sensei, I have a question," immediately the silver haired Jōnin processed what he had seen of the boy so far and decided that it probably wouldn't hurt to let him ask, from what he had shown he was actually working towards improving, especially if his new clothing was anything to go by.

"What do you want to know Blondie," despite the fact the blond had improved his opinion of the one eyed Jōnin, he couldn't help but feel slightly angry at the man for calling him by his hair colour instead of his name, then again, he did the same with his teammates so he should've expected it.

"That mission yesterday, what did it have to do with ninja? Why did we have to weed a garden?" thinking about it the masked man had to admit that it was a valid question, one that he himself had asked Minato-sensei back when he was a genin and even to this day he remembered the answer he had been given.

"It's to do with war," the response was immediate, all three genin gained looks of total confusion that dominated their faces as the experienced ninja gave them the first portion of the answer, "before you interrupt, we are currently in times of peace, therefore we don't have as many missions to go around, which means that more ninja need missions to survive. The answer to this problem is simple, instead of cutting back on the number of shinobi the village hires them out for minor chores, this gives the ninja money to survive and more importantly, it also adds money to the treasury."

"So if we were at war we wouldn't have D-rank missions?" Sakura asked with a hint of concern in her voice as she thought about being expected to leave the village to face death on a daily basis, the idea honestly scared her more than anything else she had ever come across.

"That is correct, however since we are in times of peace you don't have to worry about that situation right now," Kakashi assured her, of course he knew that his words were empty, in the ninja world war could break out in an instant, usually with no warning at all.

"Kakashi-sensei, you said that D-ranks add to the treasury right?" came another question from the blond as he pondered the situation and why they would need the money, earning a simple nod of confirmation from the Jōnin, "why is that so important?"

Immediately the blue eyed genin began to grow nervous as the entire team looked at him blankly, possibly wondering how he could've possibly not known why the treasury was important.

"Naruto-baka, the treasury is the villages wealth, a measure of its power!" came Sakura's annoyed response, Iruka had covered it in class before and it was now obvious that the boy had either ignored him or simply skipped the lesson completely and it irked her that he showed such blatant disrespect for their sensei.

"Actually, that's not quite right Pinky," came a calm statement from the Jōnin causing the entire team to look at him with confusion in their eyes as he essentially stated that what they had been taught was flawed knowledge, "a large treasury isn't a direct sign of power, the ninja are the villages power, not money."

Sakura was suddenly at a loss for words as Iruka's teachings were suddenly torn down by her knew sensei, if what he said was true then Iruka had taught the class with flawed information and it scared her, if one thing was wrong then how many other things could be wrong?

"If money isn't a measure of a villages power then why is the treasury important?" the whiskered child asked, trying to get his head around the idea that they had to do minor chores for no reason, if the treasury wasn't important then why was that more important than giving the ninja a living?

"I said it isn't a _direct_ measure of power," the cyclops stated calmly, causing the group to listen to him more carefully as he began to explain the technical aspects of it, "despite what you might think, war is an expensive business, lots of structures are sabotages, roads destroyed and walls broken down. So when a war is finished it is necessary to repair all these problems and that takes money."

Suddenly it all made sense. What the treasury did was indicate how quickly the village could recover from war, in an economical sense anyway, ninja took time to replace after all. That last part actually made the blond pause for a second, if D-ranks were in preparation for war then why were so many genin failed by their Jōnin instructors?

"Kakashi-sensei, if D-ranks are preparations for war then why are so many potential ninja sent back to the academy?" hearing this Kakashi couldn't help but admit that he saw were the boy was coming from but at the same time it was a simplistic view and he was more than happy to snip it in the bud.

"It is for the same reason," the teams expression once again took one of complete confusion as their minds tried to figure out exactly what the man meant by that statement, why was culling the forces preparing for war? "you see, the students that get sent back are the ones that are practically guaranteed to die in a war, which would in turn increase the number the casualties on our side. However by sending them back, we also give ourselves a form of reserve roster of trained ninja that are almost guaranteed to survive war, giving us the chance to immediately swell our lower ranks back to a decent size and continue taking missions, something we wouldn't have if we just let anyone become a ninja."

Suddenly it made sense. By ensuring that there were always people trained as ninja's that do not participate in war, it practically guaranteed that the village could partially recover what it lost in a relatively short span of time, it was definitely more effective than his belief of 'more to start, more to finish'.

"Oh… I never thought of it that way," the young blond admitted with a small, forced chuckle as he put his hand behind his head in a fashion that had almost become a trademark for him.

"Meh, don't worry about it, lots of people don't see that aspect of keeping children back at the academy or dropping them from the program," the one eyed ninja said in a dismissive tone, letting the boy know that he wasn't just being stupid like he thought he was, "now I'm sure you probably have even more questions but we really do need to start training now, so keep whatever you want to ask until after we've completed today's mission."

"Hai Kakashi-sensei," was the only response he received before he began teaching the group about emotional control.

XXX XXX XXX

The time heading up to lunch passed slowly as the trio studied the art of managing their emotions and attempting to hide them from the outside world. What they had originally believed would be quick and easy immediately proved to them that if anything, it would be a long and difficult process and that simple fact actually caused the trio to question why they would be wasting time with such a pointless skill.

Despite the fact he tried as hard as he could to avoid doing so, Naruto couldn't help but ask why.

"Kakashi-sensei, how important is learning how to hide our emotions?" it was a simple question, one that the blond couldn't help but feel he needed to know before he could become truly enthusiastic towards the skill they were currently learning.

"Honestly, it is one of the most important skill a ninja can possess," the older man informed him calmly, noticing that the team was expecting him to extrapolate on the reason why he thought that, "tell me, if you are fighting someone and they are obviously scared, what do you do?"

"I'd run up and beat the crap outta them," came the quick response from the blond as he immediately thought about what he would do in a fight, earning a slight look of dread from the older man as he prepared his next question.

"And what if you came across someone that was perfectly calm?" Kakashi was practically praying that the student that showed the most promise wouldn't say what he was dreading he would say.

"I'd run up and beat the crap outta them," his hopes were instantly crushed as he realised that that seemed to be the only thing the boy was capable of thinking of when he thought about battle. Letting out a short sigh he proceeded to ask the same question in a different manner.

"Okay… let's rephrase that, what would a normal person do?" the reaction was instantaneous, with Sakura letting out a small giggle, Sasuke simply let out a trademark 'hn' while Naruto started to splutter indignantly at his sensei's obvious hint at his mental condition, "Sakura, what is the normal reaction in those situations?"

Quickly attempting to school her expression like Kakashi-sensei had just started teaching her to do, the young pinkette took a deep breath before giving what she hoped was a textbook perfect explanation that she hoped even Naruto could understand.

"In the first situation the opponent is obviously either not ready to fight or outclassed by you, so you can quickly dispatch them without much effort, while the second situation is against an opponent that believes they are either equal to, or stronger than you, which means you should err on the side of caution," as soon as she finished her explanation, she noticed that her sensei was giving a simple nod indicating that she was at least mostly correct, while Naruto was simply standing with his hand behind his neck once again while giving off a forced chuckle, letting everyone know that he had managed to see his own stupidity.

"So do you understand now Naruto? If you are capable of controlling your emotions you can gain some control over the battlefield, this is especially true when the fight has been protracted and both parties are tired, at that point in time being capable of hiding how tired you are can mean tricking your opponent into making a desperate move which you can then take advantage of and use to win the fight," upon stating this, Kakashi felt his hope in the blond reignite, even if he wasn't the brightest bulb in the village, he at least showed signs that he was willing to learn and ask questions when he didn't know the answer to something… unlike his teammates.

If he thought about it only Naruto seemed to be prepared to put effort into using his own time to find out what he needed to improve and actually put effort into discovering where he was going wrong. For a moment he contemplated giving the rest of the team orders to learn where they needed to improve and come to him with a general idea of what they needed to do, however after a few moments deliberation he decided against it, if they needed to be ordered to improve then they weren't ready to gain the strength necessary to reach the rank of Chūnin.

Quickly looking at the team of genin, he couldn't help but feel a hint of pride upon seeing them all working with a renewed vigour, though Naruto appeared to have become even more excited upon hearing about the value of hiding his emotions on the battlefield, which in turn made the exercise even more difficult for him. Barely suppressing a chuckle, the one eyed Jōnin reached into his kunai pouch before pulling out his favourite little orange book.

Time felt as if it had started moving faster now that the genin knew that the lesson they were learning today was actually worth something in battle as opposed to simply an annoyance like they originally believed it to be.

So it was with a hint of reluctance that the group finished their team training for the day, they knew that they weren't getting far at all in their practice and as such the reluctance wasn't as great as it could've been if they had actually been progressing quickly.

Their minds went over the training as they followed their sensei towards the Hokage's tower, wondering if they had become even marginally better at concealing what they were thinking, even Sasuke had to admit that what the Jōnin had them do would be beneficial in the long run, even if he would rather learn things that were only good in the short run till he killed his brother.

Of course he refused to let his 'teammates' know that he wasn't even grumpier than normal, primarily by simply acting the way he always did, by generally ignoring them and giving a 'hn' as his default answer to everything they directed at him.

Despite now walking for several minutes, Naruto couldn't help but notice one simple fact, his muscles were not hurting anywhere near as much as they had when he was moving before, he immediately chalked it down to a combination of merely walking and the advanced regenerative abilities he received from Kyūbi strengthening his muscles. He did accept that he would have to actually do a lap around the village after their mission was finished in order to see if he had really grown stronger since that morning.

While Naruto was contemplating his training there was one other that was contemplating the blonds training, mainly because he had heard the telltale jingle of chainmail ever since the boy had first moved to start the team training that morning. Kakashi had focused on the barely audible noise for a good ten minutes just to make sure he was getting his estimate right and if he was right then he was almost certain that the whiskered boy was wearing somewhere in the region of one hundred and sixy to one hundred and seventy pounds.

He knew that the extra weight would make it harder for his student to fight, however he knew where the coat was from and knew that there wasn't a lot that beat that particular type of coat for defensive capabilities and the only reason it wasn't as popular as it could've been was because of the weight issue. Quietly musing to himself his mind wandered over to an art he had just started studying and decided that he would do a little research on a way to 'deal' with the weight issue but until the team went on a C-rank he would simply let the whiskered boy train with the extra weight, it would do him some good at the very least.

Sakura on the other hand was simply relieved. When she had first seen her blond teammate sleeping in the training field she had needed to do a double take of his appearance because of the simple fact that he had finally decided to wear something that wasn't his 'kill me orange' jumpsuit. She had decided against waking him up courtesy of the simple fact that he was still wearing orange, even if he was wearing less and it was a darker shade to his jumpsuit and she was also not prepared to wake him up just to give him a chance to annoy her while they waited for their sensei.

Everyone snapped out of their musing when they finally reached the Hokage's office, all of them ready to receive their next mission, hoping that it wouldn't be weeding a garden again.

"Hey Ojisan, what'cha got for us today?" came Naruto's usual greeting which was once again followed by a familiar fist smashing his face to the floor, earning several sweatdrops off the other occupants of the room, the feeling of déjà vu clear in their minds as they thought back to the previous day where the meeting started off exactly the same way… even if Naruto had changed his wardrobe since then.

"Naruto-baka, show Hokage-sama some respect!" Sakura demanded off her blond teammate as he lay on the floor, apparently having a little difficulty standing back up. The entire room stood in silence as they watched the whiskered blond slowly try to stand, taking nearly a full minute to reach his feet where he should've taken a few seconds at the most.

"Damn coat," came a barely audible comment from the blond when he finally managed to get back to his feet, looking slightly drained to even the most untrained eye, earning an almost concerned expression from the pink haired genin in the process, she was certain she hadn't hit him that hard.

"I take it that coat you're wearing is a Higarashi, am I correct Naruto-kun?" came a simple question from the aged leader after hearing the blonds comment, he may have been old but he was still sharper than a razor and unlike the blonds teammates had easily picked up his moan.

"Uh, yeah, how'd you know?" for once his teammates couldn't help but feel like they weren't getting the entire picture and it annoyed them to know that their teammate knew something they didn't.

"I doubt anyone would curse a normal coat Naruto-kun, plus you wouldn't normally have had such difficulty simply standing up," the response was quick, simple and immediately told the other genin that there was something strange about the boys coat, "still, it is a strange choice of clothing for a ninja, then again, you never were one to do the normal thing were you?" the old man said with a small chuckle, earning an indignant pout from the whiskered child realising that saying that was simply the old man's way of calling him weird.

"Um, excuse me Hokage-sama, what is a Higarashi coat?" Sakura asked, no longer able to hold her questions, earning a small smile from the leader as he opened his mouth.

"It is a special type of coat made by a blacksmith named Higarashi, not many ninja buy them because despite their excellent defensive properties, they are incredibly heavy, ranging from anywhere between one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty pounds depending on their size," upon receiving her answer, the pinkettes eyes widened in shock hearing that a single coat could possibly weight that much, although it did answer a few of her questions, mainly why it took the blond so long to stand up.

"Now I'm sure you'd all love to continue your little chat with Hokage-sama but we came here to get a mission for today, so let's just get it and get out of Hokage-sama's way, I'm sure he has plenty of paperwork that needs to be done," Kakashi stated with an eye smile, causing the two sociable genin to take on an apologetic expression while the Kage took out a simple scroll and handed it to the silver haired Jōnin.

"Here is the mission you requested earlier, I hope your team is prepared for it," the small smirk that graced the aged leaders lips caused even Sasuke to visibly gulp at the implications of what the mission entailed.

"Thank you Hokage-sama, alright team seven, let's go meet the client," came Kakashi's order as he turned to leave the room, the trio of genin following him in a cheap imitation of lost puppies.

XXX XXX XXX

Sakura had to admit that she absolutely HATED her newest D-rank mission. When she first heard what the mission was she wasn't that upset, however it was the events that occurred during the mission itself that were grating on her nerves.

It would appear that walking the Inuzuka's dogs was harder than she had anticipated. When the team had been told by Kakashi that they would be walking the Inuzuka's ninken she had expected a group of dogs that were perfectly trained and would obey her without question, what she got on the other hand was a pack of hyperactive hooligans that tried their hardest to drag her all over Konoha, Sasuke didn't seem to be doing much better.

The group that was being walked by Kakashi on the other hand was behaving perfectly, not a single animal wasn't walking to heel or trying to drag him all over the village. The worst part however was that she had already asked him to trade and as soon as the leads had been exchanged the dogs had apparently traded personalities as well, with the dogs she had just been having trouble with immediately falling into line with the Jōnin on the other end of their leads, while the ones that had been perfectly behaved suddenly becoming hooligans.

It wouldn't have annoyed her quite as much if it wasn't for the fact that Naruto wasn't having any difficulty with his group either. He actually appeared to be enjoying himself simply jogging along with the ninken that seemed perfectly content going the same direction and pace as the whiskered blond. He might have been working up a light sweat but since she was aware of the weight of his coat it wasn't much of a surprise, for one thing she wasn't sure if she could even lift it, let alone jog with it on.

Naruto on the other hand had been quite quick to realise something his pink haired teammate hadn't, the ninken were just as smart as she had originally anticipated and it was for that exact reason that she was having such immense difficulty. The ninken knew how strong each person was and were perfectly capable of figuring out just how much effort the genin put into the mission, which was exactly why the group he was having a light jog with weren't causing him any problems. That's not to say that they hadn't tried anything when they had first started the mission but they had quickly calmed down when he had a quick talk with them about his coat and the amount of exercise he was capable of with it on.

That piece of information had apparently pleased the dogs enough to simply let him jog at his own pace, though they had occasionally stopped so they could 'do their business' when they needed to. Judging by the dogs acceptance of him, Naruto quickly grew to believe that they liked him to a certain extent, from what he could tell from the others it was apparent that the Inuzuka ninken respected a good work ethic, something which he had despite his love of pranks and hatred of lectures.

Looking at his teammates, the blond found it difficult to suppress a laugh at their expense, all they had to do was put some effort into the walk and the ninken would stop being so difficult, well, except in Kakashi's case, he could tell that they simply didn't bother trying to push a Jōnin, either because they knew it was a lesson in futility or he had already gained their respect prior to the mission, either way they were already behaving perfectly for him.

Despite his difficulty in holding back his laughter, he couldn't help but notice the sheer amount of hate present in his crush's eyes, that was probably the only reason he succeeded in not openly laughing at her and Sasuke's difficulty in controlling their charges. Putting some thought behind it he finally decided to ask his 'charges' what they thought of his train of thought.

"Hey, what do you guys think of Sakura-chan?" he knew they couldn't really answer him, none of them could actually speak, sure they could understand what he was saying but they weren't capable of speaking the same language as humans. There was only one Inuzuka ninken capable of human speech and how he did so was a mystery that the clan had eventually given up trying to figure out.

Hearing the genin ask them quietly the group gave him an incredulous look before he carried on with his inquiry, "I mean, do you think she's really cut out to be a ninja? It almost seems like she hates working."

Almost immediately the dogs gave him a serious look as they shook their heads in the negative, even if they couldn't tell him directly, what they had seen of the girl almost made them sick, she lashed out whenever things weren't going her way, she obviously hated putting effort into anything, she wore bright red clothes and didn't dye or hide her neon pink hair, instead growing it to the point that it was practically a waterfall against her back and gave any enemies that might look for her on missions something very easy to spot in any form of natural environment, excluding Sakura trees but it was incredibly rare for a ninja to come across those natural beauties.

It didn't help their opinions of her that she reeked of perfumes and makeup, obviously placing more care on her appearance instead of her career, the scent of many of these products could easily give away a ninja's position and forfeit her life. Of course they also noticed fangirl tendencies in her demeanour which caused even more harm to the ninkens opinions of her, which was probably why the group she had was causing the amount of trouble they were.

Letting out a sigh of defeat, Naruto couldn't help but ask another the dogs another question just loud enough for them to hear, "do you think she'd survive our first mission outside the village?"

His eyes focused on the animals as they proceeded to look at him, Sasuke and Kakashi, prompting him to think about their action for a few seconds before coming to a conclusion he didn't want to admit, "are you trying to say that she would only survive because of the rest of us?"

His heart began to beat faster as his dread began to rise, if there was ever a case where the team was separated Sakura's chances of survival were easily the lowest of the group and he knew that he did not want to see her die, especially if he could do something about it. As he continued his jog, he couldn't help but feel both upset and grateful that the dogs had been honest with him, actually thinking things over had helped him begin improving and getting a non-biased opinion from the animals seemed to be exactly what he needed to get him to try and help Sakura, he would do his best to be a good teammate and try to get her to see the sense behind training instead of simply stalking Sasuke.

"Alright kids, I think we've been walking the dogs long enough, let's go back to the Inuzuka compound and finish the mission," came a calm call from Kakashi as he ordered the children to walk back towards a street that led to the clans territory.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto couldn't help admitting that his second pay check didn't have the same feel to it as his first, he believed it was probably because of it not being something new or having any form of significance behind it other than signifying that he had been paid for the last mission.

Pushing down his thoughts concerning the slip of paper, he couldn't help but put the check in his pouch before turning to try and find his sensei, he could remember that he had a few questions from earlier that he hadn't had a chance to ask the Jōnin. Immediately he noticed a distinct lack of gravity defying silver hair indicating the older ninja had already vanished from the local area.

"Dammit, where the hell is Kakashi-sensei?" he muttered to himself as Sasuke and Sakura walked past him to leave the tower, deciding to ignore their blond teammate, if he wanted to waste his time looking for their sensei then that was his decision to make and they wouldn't bother him. The duo weren't surprised when they suddenly found the orange clad blond jogging past them towards the central street of the village, his head darting from side to side in an obvious attempt to pick out the obvious form of their sensei.

Naruto had to admit that Kakashi was hard to find when he wanted to be, he had looked through the entire market district and found absolutely nothing of the man, it was almost as if he had just vanished into thin air leaving him with no clues as to where he could possibly be. Suddenly his mind focused on that statement, had the Jōnin actually left no clues about where he could be? Or was he just thinking too recently?

Thinking back on everything he had seen of the man, there wasn't much he knew about him, he liked his little orange book but he wasn't at the book store so that ruled out that place, he seemed quite lazy so he probably wasn't at the training grounds, he apparently believed teamwork to be the most important part of being a shinobi but all his teammates were dead… suddenly it clicked in his mind somewhere else he could look for the man, the memorial stone he had shown them during their true genin exam.

Forgetting the extra weight of his coat he bolted from the village to the gate, prepared to make his way to the training field that housed the monument and hopefully where he would find his sensei. Of course he quickly began to remember the fact he couldn't run as much with the coat on as he could without it and slowed his pace to one that he believed he could keep up for awhile.

After what he believed to be about ten minutes of running, he finally found his destination and a grin formed on his face upon seeing the familiar mop of silver hair standing in front of the rock that held the names of the ninja that died in the line of duty.

"Kakashi-sensei!" came the relatively loud call of the blond, causing the Jōnin to turn to face him, his single eye conveying a sense of melancholy that even the blond could pick up on, causing him to deflate, he had been so excited to have had his deduction proven correct that he had forgotten the monument was closer to being considered a headstone than a statue, "I'm sorry about disturbing you but I have a question for you."

"That's quite alright Naruto, how are you supposed to learn if you don't ask questions? So what is it you want to know?" the masked man asked his charge calmly as he put his book away and turned to face the child, letting him know he had his full attention.

"I read a bit more of 'the foundations of taijutsu' and it said that I should avoid using taijutsu in real fights," the blond started, earning a small nod from the one eyed ninja, prompting him to carry on, "if that's the case then what is the point of learning taijutsu and how does it expect me to fight without it?"

"Naruto, taijutsu is important, however most of the time ninja use either Kunai or various other weapons when fighting at a short range, mainly because a sharp edge will almost always be deadlier than a fist, don't get me wrong there are some exceptions but not many," came the perfectly calm statement from the silver haired Jōnin which earned a look of understanding from the genin, "however taijutsu is important to get close to the target and successfully hit them with the weapon, which means that speed becomes the most important factor in victory."

"So… you're saying that his coat is practically useless?" Naruto could barely contain his frustration at making what was apparently a serious mistake in choosing the coat as his armour.

"Not really, it does two things, one it will protect you while you wear it, just because speed is important doesn't mean good tactics can't overcome a faster opponent," Kakashi told him calmly, earning a look of relief from the child before he continued, "and the other thing it does is help train your body, the extra weight is forcing your legs to work harder and since they're working harder it also means that when you take that coat off you'll receive a bit of a speed boost which could quite easily turn the tide of a battle."

Suddenly the blond couldn't help but let a smile grace his lips upon hearing his sensei's statement, from what he could hear his sensei didn't think he'd made a mistake buying the coat despite its apparent disadvantages, however the man's statements had also brought something to his mind that he decided he should ask about before wasting money on.

"Um, Kakashi-sensei, when I bought this coat the shopkeeper recommended that I get a Zanbatō, do you think that'd be a good idea?" it was a simple question and made the older ninja blink once at the idea of his student swinging around a cleaver about the same size as himself, the thought almost made him laugh, mainly because he could see the boy getting in trouble with his teammates by nearly hitting them with it, he was sure that it wouldn't happen but it made for an amusing thought.

"Zanbatō tend to be quite heavy, though it is well known that they aren't exactly slow when wielded by someone with the right strength. I think it would help you get stronger, even if it just gives your arms more exercise and adds more weight for your legs to try and carry, so I don't see why you shouldn't get one," the explanation gave Naruto a good idea of what having a sword like that would do for him, allowing him to make his decision.

"Kakashi-sensei, does this idea sound any good, getting a Zanbatō, Kodachi and some regular armour," Naruto started, piquing his sensei's interest at the reason for getting so much, "I could wear my coat over the normal armour and use the Zanbatō when I need power and the Kodachi when I need speed… does that sound like a good idea?"

Nervousness overcame the blonds features as he watched his sensei put his hand to his chin in what appeared to be a thinking posture, he didn't really see what there was to think about, it either was or wasn't a good idea.

"I'll admit I've never heard of anyone ever using that sort of strategy, the closest to that I've seen is Gai and he just wears leg weights to improve his speed, still, I don't see any harm in your idea, well except financially but that's your business not mine," immediately the blond let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in, his sensei didn't think it was a stupid idea, just not a common one.

Kakashi couldn't help thinking about the blonds idea, if the child did go with it then he wouldn't have to do any research into a way to eliminate the coats weight as he would be perfectly capable of simply discarding it and gain enough speed to deal with whatever it was he would end up facing.

"Alright then, thanks for the help Kakashi-sensei! I'll see ya tomorrow!" came the hyperactive call from the excited child as he suddenly started darting back towards the village, slowing down after a few dozen feet upon remembering he still couldn't run at the sort of speed he used to without his coat.

"Hm… I wonder when Sasuke or Sakura will start coming to me for advice? Oh well, they'll come when they're ready," Kakashi muttered quietly as he watched the retreating form of what was quickly becoming his favourite student before pulling his favourite little orange book out of his pouch and opening it at a random page and immediately giving the book his full attention once again.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto began to feel a hint of anticipation as he arrived outside 'Higarashi weapons and armour' with his wallet full of money, ready to buy his new weapons and armour. He had no intention of going back on his word of learning how to fight with the extra weight his coat would force on him, however he had to accept that Kakashi-sensei made a good point, there were times when you needed more speed.

Quickly entering the store for the second time in two days, the blond immediately looked at the counter, seeing the large man that owned the store and made his coat, the look on his face told the blond that he hadn't expected to see him again so soon.

"Yo, I'm back, got a few things I want to get today," the whiskered child said with a grin, earning a raised eyebrow from the bear of a man.

"Aye? An what's it ya want?" the dark haired store owner asked, wondering exactly what it was the child came back for, he didn't seem particularly interested in anything else the previous day, so what had changed since then?

"Well I had a talk with Kakashi-sensei and decided that I should get a Zanbatō, a Kodachi and some ANBU style armour," the statement caused the man to put on a confused expression, why would a person want all of them to go with the 'chaincoat' as he dubbed it.

"Ya don't mind me askin' but what da 'ell are ya plannin' on doin' with all dat?" he had to admit that he had nothing against the boy buying all that gear but at the same time he would like to know exactly why someone would want it all.

"Two layers, heavy no top, light underneath, if I ever need more speed I can always shed the heavy stuff without leaving myself defenceless," came a simple statement from the blond as he looked at a rack of various types of sword, paying extra attention to the Zanbatō's and Kodachi's on display.

"Ah, I see, well dat makes sense. Anyway, feel free tae try on some armour, dinnae want'cha buyin' stuff ya cannae fit in tae," and with that said, the large man proceeded to lean back into a chair, prepared to simply wait for the boy to finish his selection in peace.

Naruto on the other hand was finding the collection of blades sitting in front of him rather daunting, countless cleavers each as tall as he was lined the wall, their styles varying from simple imitations of oars to intricate masterpieces of metal strips forged into weapons that looked more suitable for resting over a fireplace than on the battlefield… and that was just the Zanbatō's, he didn't dare have a proper look at the Kodachi's until he had chosen his Zanbatō.

After nearly fifteen minutes of looking at the different blades that could be classified as Zanbatō he finally decided to ask the owner of the store a question that had been bugging him slightly about choosing a sword, "hey, is there anywhere I can give these things a test swing?"

"Anywhere there's enough room and still in the store," came the calm response from the owner, causing Naruto to simply blink in surprise at the man's laid back attitude to people swinging weapons in the store, regardless it made things easier for him as he hefted a large sword off it hooks and made his way to the area of the shop that had the largest amount of free space.

As soon as the boy was certain he was in the clear, he planted his feet, happily working his muscles in an attempt to give the blade a full swing, barely succeeding in stopping the cleaver from flying out of his hands, the weight behind the weapon almost completely destroying his grip on the sword. Of course that simply made him more determined to keep his grip on the next swing, readying his body to deal with the momentum behind the next swing.

Higarashi couldn't help but let a smile edge its way onto his lips as he watched the young child try out blade after blade, attempting to find one that felt right to swing instead of simply one that looked cool like most kids did. He was also slightly impressed that the boy was already adjusting his technique when swinging the blade to improve his grip on it despite the obvious hints that he had never even touched a sword before, let alone one as specialised as a Zanbatō.

What seemed like hours passed with the spiky haired blond giving countless blades test swings before finally deciding on the Zanbato that suited him, a large rectangular blade that tapered out at the ends, creating another edge where the tip would be. Almost immediately he moved to the Kodachi section and started to repeat the process with one major difference in the fact he removed his coat to get a better feel for the speed behind the blades.

The process of choosing the Kodachi took significantly less time than it did for the larger sword, primarily because the swings took much less time and effort, allowing him to go through the same number of blades in a quarter of the time it took for the Zanbatō. However what truly made the blond take less time was the lack of differences between the Kodachi, while the Zanbatō came in all shapes and sizes that caused them to have a different feel from each other, the Kodachi were all of similar size and design, creating only minor differences that could barely be noticed.

So in the end he simply chose a two foot long Kodachi with a black sheath, a crimson grip and a hand guard forged into the same pattern as the symbol of Kohoha, a spiral with the outline of a leaf.

Finally finished selecting his new blades, the blond turned to face the basic ANBU style armour, quickly realising that unlike the blades, there would be no real selection involved this time, instead it would simply be a matter of finding the right size and then he would be done for the day, the simplicity of this choice made the selection process take less than five minutes as the boy chose a set that was slightly larger than he was, giving him a little room to grow before he would have to buy a new set.

"So are ya done makin yer choice?" the bear of a man asked the blond as he finally walked up to the counter, his chosen items firmly in his grasp and his coat back on his back. The owner of the store could see the boy was having a little trouble hefting the large blade but he had plenty of time to gain the strength needed to wield it so he wasn't worried about it.

"Yeah, I'll take this lot," the whiskered child said with a tone that told the man that he was physically exhausted, it was obvious the boy hadn't been used to using such heavy objects and it was taking its toll on him.

"So, do ya want me tae fix up ya coat tae sheath yer Zanbatō?" upon hearing the man's question Naruto couldn't help but wonder how the older person could possibly adjust his coat to hold what was soon to be his blade, the weight made him feel that any normal method of attaching the blade would break under his cleaver. Still he was pretty sure the guy knew what he was doing so he relented without any questions.

XXX XXX XXX

For the second time in two days Naruto opened his front door and entered his apartment with his entire body protesting the actions as his new cleaver rested in a barely noticeable 'sheath' made of a thin but strong alloy with two loops connected by a long stretch of the metal. While the blade easily passed through the first loop located behind his right shoulder, the second 'loop' possessed a barrier that prevented the blade from falling through it, giving the weapon a nice and breezy place to rest when not in use.

The Kodachi on the other hand was currently hidden under his coat attached to his belt, the angle of the weapon adjusted to allow for its presence to be hidden while granting easy access when his coat wasn't in the way.

He was wearing his new armour under his coat, covering the shin guards with the orange leg warmers he had bought back when he first picked out his new outfit, of course this did nothing to ease the burden he was carrying with the combination of his overly heavy coat and Zanbatō forcing him to carry nearly two hundred pounds more than he was used to.

As soon as he passed the threshold of his home, the young blond did what he believed made more sense than anything else, he slipped off his coat, ignoring the fact the massive cleaver was still attached to it as he simply let it hit the ground with a resounding thud and a small cracking sound.

Turning to look at where his heaviest pieces of equipment had fallen he was slightly surprised to see that the wooden floor was visibly cracked, proof of the weight he had been carrying and causing the blond to contemplate actually placing the things on the floor instead of simply let them fall the next time he came back nearly exhausted.

However it made no difference anymore as he proceeded to unstrap his lighter set of armour and place it in his bedroom, ignoring his body's protests with his goal clear in his mind, to make up for missing out on his reading earlier.

With his mind made up the blond proceeded to force his body back to the living room and start making his daily ramen, he had eaten at Ichiraku's earlier however simply walking back to his apartment had ignited his hunger once again and he wasn't one to ignore his stomach unless he was training.

With the water on boil the blond proceeded to wait, not prepared to miss the water boiling and be forced to boil some more because of being too far into reading to notice anything like he had before.

Letting out a small smile upon seeing the water boil, the whiskered boy took the pan and immediately poured the piping hot liquid into an open cup of instant ramen, the smell that was released immediately wafting up his nose and giving the boy a certain level of pleasure he never grew tired of.

Taking his 'meal' to the table and clearing a space amongst the dishes left over from the morning, the blond proceeded to take off his kunai pouch and place it on the kitchen table before pulling out the books and deciding to once again open 'The Basics of Chakra' at the page he finished at the last time he read it, his mind beginning to focus solely on the lessons contained within the small hardback.

As he read his mind began to wander on the subjects he read about, the book mentioned that chakra control was an important part of being a shinobi and yet it never gave him any indication of how to improve it meaning that he would have to once again meet his sensei and ask him for help, then again the man didn't seem to mind helping, if the small hint of happiness in his eye was any indication.

Yeah, Kakashi was someone he could happily call sensei, just like Iruka, both treated him fairly and didn't give him the cold looks the rest of the village did. Thinking back on everything that had happened, he couldn't help but feel that he had been an idiot to refuse to ask for help before the true genin exam, if he had actually asked when he didn't understand something then he was certain he would at least be far more skilled and well rounded than he currently was… hell he might even have been as strong, if not stronger than Sasuke.

Upon his newest realisation he couldn't help but feel depressed, he could've been stronger than Sasuke and succeeded in receiving Sakura's affection if he had simply asked for help instead of trying to do everything on his own. It was horrible to finally know that it was entirely his own fault that the pink haired Konoichi didn't like him but he was Uzumaki Naruto, he refused to give up.

Once again his mind moved towards the young girl and his conversation with the Inuzuka ninken, she didn't like training or putting effort into anything. He knew that was a dangerous flaw for her to have, he had overlooked it for so long but now that he was finally taking his training seriously he couldn't stop himself from realising that the girl would end up in situations worse than death if she kept up her current way of living.

So he would have to try and make her see what she was doing wrong, he would have to have a serious talk with her about the dangers of being a ninja, he hoped simply talking to her would be enough but if it wasn't then there was only one other thing he could do... bring her to the Hokages attention and that was something he did not want to be forced to do.

Little did he know how big an impact his current train of thought would have on the teams future.


	4. Chapter 4

Once again Uzumaki Naruto flung himself into his shower after forcing himself to wake up at the crack of dawn, his muscles fully rested from his exercise the previous day, one of the many advantages given to him by his tenant. However that didn't stop him from feeling tired courtesy of waking so early.

The young boy couldn't stop himself from simply standing in his shower, letting the warm water massage his skin and loosen his muscles, relaxing him to a point where he nearly let sleep take him right there in the shower, barely succeeding in keeping his eyes open as the gentle patter of the warm rain created a rhythmic noise that worked towards sending him into the blissful unawareness of sleep.

Shaking his head rigorously he let his thoughts head towards one of the most memorable facts of being a ninja, he would have to be capable of waking up fully alert when on missions, he would just have to force himself to go through with this situation until it became second nature to wake up at this sort of time.

Finally finishing washing himself clean of the grime that had accumulated over the previous day, the young blond slowly made his way towards the kitchen wearing a clean set of the dark clothes he had bought with the coat before he started preparing a cup of instant ramen like he always did.

Happy that his breakfast was getting ready, Naruto proceeded to wipe the sleep out of his eyes as he poured himself some coffee, putting it to extra strength with double sugar in order to try and help him wake up. Finally happy that he would have what was necessary for him to start his day, he headed towards the kitchen table where he immediately opened one of the three books he was still in the process of reading through, causing his mind to try and remember what it had brought to his attention the previous day.

It didn't take long for him to recall the memory. Today he would have to talk with Sakura and try to convince her to start working on her abilities, otherwise he didn't know what would happen to her on a higher ranked mission… if they ever got one.

It was a sobering thought for him, the one person he was certain wouldn't have to be told anything about being a ninja was the one person he knew had to be convinced about the reality of their current occupation, it almost seemed unreal to him when he thought about it.

The worst part for him however was the mere fact that he was beginning to doubt the pink haired girl, after all, she was Sakura-chan, the perfect girl around his age… even if he had recently begun to realise that she was nowhere near as perfect as he had originally believed.

Shaking his head he merely decided that these thoughts could wait, he had to concentrate on his current set of reading, a rather detailed explanation of the chakra network and how chakra flowing through it like blood was an important factor in controlling it, he didn't really understand what it meant but he was sure Kakashi-sensei would tell him if he asked so it didn't bother him too much right now.

He was brought out of his thoughts upon hearing his pan hiss indicating that the water being heated was finally hot enough to use for his morning ramen, causing him to immediately rise and pour some of the water into the cup of instant noodles, bringing out a scent he never grew tired of no matter how often he inhaled it.

Calmly taking his 'breakfast' over to his table the blond readied a pair of chopsticks as he tried to find where he had left off, finding such an act harder with his currently sleep addled brain. Finally finding the place he had left at, he absentmindedly stirred the noodles as he continued to read the book while trying to comprehend everything it was telling him.

It didn't take him long to finish his rather meagre meal which in turn prompted him to finish the page he was on before placing a slip of paper where he had finished courtesy of his lack of a proper bookmark. Standing up from his seat he calmly binned the empty plastic cup before packing the books and buckling his pouch to his waist before moving to his bedroom and strapping his armour on, he knew he probably wouldn't need it but it didn't hurt to get used to it, deciding to do the same with his Kodachi.

Finally happy with his armour being properly attached to his frame the blond lifted his hitae-ate and with a happy smile he wrapped the cloth around his head, keeping his blond locks from getting in his eyes before he made his way to his front door, stopping to put on his coat and Zanbatō (and also winced at the crack they had made on the floor) before leaving to start his morning activities.

It didn't take him long to reach the gates, absently noting that his legs were giving him a slight burn after the short jog from his apartment to the villages exit. He quickly remembered that he had felt a little less tired by this point the previous day before remembering that he didn't have the extra weight of the giant slab of steel on his back the previous day.

Realising that he would probably have even more trouble today than the previous day the blond couldn't help but take a nervous gulp before steeling his resolve, he was Uzumaki Naruto and he wouldn't back down from a challenge especially if it was one that would make him stronger and with that thought planted firmly in his mind the blond started his newest morning ritual and started a light jog around the village he had spent his entire life in.

XXX XXX XXX

Haruno Sakura was tired, it was too early in the morning as far as she was concerned, the fact she hadn't had any time to get anything to eat after getting dressed, putting her makeup on, applying her perfume and making sure her clothes were just perfect, didn't make her any less irritable either. Honestly the only reason she was even up at this time in the morning was because she didn't want to risk her sensei being on time for a change.

Of course this was a double edged sword, she had to get up early and possibly have to put up with Naruto for several hours longer than she had to but at the same time she got to spend several more hours near Sasuke, something she would not turn down for any reason. Of course right now it seemed more like the only problem she was facing was the early morning itself since Naruto had been surprisingly quiet ever since his humiliation at Kakashi-sensei's hands… that was when it finally struck her.

Everything about the blonds new demeanour finally made sense to her upon that realisation, he was actually reading and as they say, knowledge is power, the boy was also changing his wardrobe to something more suitable for a ninja and had stopped focusing on her in exchange for books or catching up on some rest, she just hoped he would keep up his current attempts and actually make himself a respectable shinobi as opposed to remaining the loudmouthed idiot everyone loved to hate.

She suddenly began to pale at her current train of thought, why was she thinking about the idiot right now? She should be thinking about either Sasuke or how to make Kakashi-sensei regret being late… again. Her mind was however cut from its realisation by a sound she wasn't particularly familiar with, it almost sounded like the rushing of wind around a kunai but it was far too large to be such and to top things off it was coming from the training ground.

Swallowing in anticipation she quietly pulled a kunai from her pouch before stalking her way towards the clearing, hoping that she wasn't going to get into combat without Sasuke or even Naruto there to help her, in her mind she was just a girl that didn't belong on the battlefield, instead she should be placed on missions such as seduction and information gathering, she was certain she would be an expert at those arts but fighting was too much for her no matter what her scores in the academy said.

Coming to the edge of the clearing the pink haired konoichi proceeded to look past the foliage and released a breath she didn't know she had been holding upon seeing her blond teammate swinging what looked like an oversized oar to her, though judging by the sound it made it was most probably a Zanbatō of some sort and made her question her blond teammate. Here he was swinging around a massive blade while wearing a coat that the Hokage himself had said was ridiculously heavy, even if he was obviously struggling to do so.

The pink haired girl proceeded to continue watching her teammate swing his new weapon around, barely succeeding in lifting it off the ground as his legs shook and his face was drenched in sweat from the rigors of his morning workout. As such it was obvious to the female genin that the blond really needed to rest, especially given the fact their sensei would probably only be a few hours late.

"Naruto," she decided to call out, making the blond stop his exercise and turn to face her with heavy breathing and unfocused eyes, almost making her pity him, of course she decided against such a feeling under the pretences that he had done it to himself and such feelings would therefore be misplaced.

"H-hey… Saku… Sakura-chan," the spiky haired youth greeted in between pants as he slowly tried to catch his breath before he started to move towards a tree with obvious difficulty in his movements as he literally dragged his Zanbatō behind him, "sorry… I… I'll stop bo… bothering you now."

The young girl nearly cleared out her ears upon hearing the boy apologize for bothering her when in all honesty, she had no feelings about his exercise outside of the fact he was literally working himself past exhaustion… she knew one thing and it was that overworking your muscles hindered growth as they took longer to repair and therefore stopped the person from continuing as quickly.

"Baka! The only thing that's bothering me is the state you're in!" the red clad girl practically shouted, unaware of the impact her words actually had on the boy that despite his current condition managed to pick up on his teammates concern for him.

It brought a warm feeling to his chest as his mind was overcome with the simple fact that the girl cared about him, even if only a little it was better than nothing and he couldn't help but let out a small genuine smile that immediately unnerved the girl, not because it was scary or anything along those lines but because of the mere fact it looked completely different to any smile she had seen the blond give before.

It was for that very reason that she began to question the blond even more than she had been recently, the fact that the boy smiled such a calm and sincere smile made her question his other smiles, the way he would always close his eyes, bare his teeth, scratch the back of his head… it all seemed so forced to her now that she saw his true smile and it nearly made her sick. The sheer thought that the boy would keep smiling in such an unnatural manner made her scared, just how happy was the happy go lucky idiot that the entire class knew and loved? Was he really happy or was it all just an act to fool everyone into thinking everything was fine when it clearly wasn't?

"Thanks Sakura-chan but I'm fine, just a little tired that's all," Naruto said no longer panting as he took a seat at the base of a tree and pulled out a book to read, completely forgetting about the conversation he wanted to have with her upon the revelation that despite her constant berating and occasional acts of violence, Sakura did actually care for him.

"Naruto-baka! You're not just tired, you're completely exhausted! What the hell have you been doing all morning?!" the pinkette yelled at him, earning a downcast look from the blond as he remembered all the exercise he had done up until then.

"Just a single lap of the village and fifty swings of my sword," the blond muttered quietly, though loud enough for the girl to hear. Fortunately for the girl she had ended up waking up properly due to the series of shocks she had received just minutes ago which in turn allowed her to remember the weight of the coat and also take into account the size of the blade he was carrying, which in turn made her eyes go wide.

"What do you mean _just_ a lap of the village and fifty swings?!" she practically shouted in shock at the blonds wording, "with all that extra weight you're lucky it didn't kill you!"

"S-Sakura-chan, it's alright, really," the blond said in an attempt to calm down his currently furious teammate with little success to say the least as the pink haired girl began yell at him even more than she initially had.

"No it's not alright! Just look at you! You were almost dead on your feet and you're saying it's alright!" despite the hint of fear he felt towards his teammate he couldn't help but smile even more at the mere fact she was so concerned about him… even if it was completely unjustified courtesy of his unique circumstances.

"Um… Sakura-chan, I don't think you know this but I have something the doctors called a… an advanced healing factor slash high speed regeneration of serious injuries," the blond stated while trying to get the wording of the reports correct, unaware of the problem doing so would cause.

Sakura for her part immediately noticed something, the fact that he apparently had a form of regenerative ability meant he probably had a kekkei genkai of some kind however if that was the case then the doctors should've told him about it, meaning he would be eligible to start a clan if it didn't already exist… but in order to know what the kekkei genkai did meant the clan had to already exist so why wasn't he with them? And if they didn't exist then how did they know his mutation was regenerative?

"Uh, Naruto, how do they know your kekkei genkai is advanced healing?" immediately she knew something was wrong as she noticed confusion on the blonds face upon hearing the term kekkei genkai but above that it was the stiffening of his frame upon realising what she was asking him, it didn't take her long to figure out that the boy had been admitted to hospital for a serious injury at some point in his life, though the way the injury was inflicted worried her, accidents rarely tended to be bad enough to create such a reaction from the victim, "what happened?"

Naruto immediately felt uncomfortable as he remembered the one time he had been admitted to hospital, he had stayed at Ichiraku's for too long and ended up having to pass through the red light district after dark, completely unaware of the dangers such a place held, especially towards those that couldn't defend themselves… and a violent drunk that had been thrown out of a brothel for being too rowdy ended up looking for a punching bag and he just so happened to be the unlucky person to be chosen by the drunkard.

"Let's just say I learned to avoid the red light district at night the hard way," the blond muttered quietly before opening the book at the slip of paper as Sakura began to look towards the ground at that titbit of information she had received off her blond teammate. It was something she was finding genuinely disturbing, the fact that there appeared to be far more to Naruto than she had thought for the last five years.

"Hn… it's not like you had anyone to tell you otherwise," came a familiar voice that snapped the pair out of their silence and caused them to turn to face their raven haired teammate currently leaning against a tree just outside of their peripheral vision, explaining why neither of them noticed him until now.

"Sasuke-kun!" the instant Sakura said his name the raven haired boy cringed upon realising where the morning was going, he should've just kept quiet and let the pair continue talking. Of course he knew that Sakura would eventually grow tired of him and quiet down later on anyway but the dialogue between her and Naruto seemed to be giving the girl second thoughts about her blond haired teammate, something he had tried to do the day of the team announcements… though she completely ignored his words and everything went back to the way it was before.

While he refused to show it the dark eyed Uchiha truly did respect Naruto, to have reached the level he was at with no help was proof that the boy was capable but undereducated, while his ability to put on a fake smile everyday just to say to the village that they wouldn't get him down despite their efforts was also something he admired.

Honestly the only difference he saw between himself and the blond was that he had previous training and instead of trying to prove his existence… he was trying to end someone else's, though it did amuse him slightly that the blond had apparently believed that the person he wanted to kill was him. Of course that was anything but the case, without Naruto he didn't know who he would have to choose as his rival, all the other members of the graduating class that were capable enough were all clan members and specialized in specific styles of jutsu giving him no direct means to measure his growth against them.

It didn't help that Naruto was the only person in the class he felt he could relate to, even if the whiskered genin had never had a family that loved him unconditionally like he had. It always hurt to think about them, to know that he could've grown up with his mother, father, brother and the countless uncles, aunties, cousins, nieces and nephews that made up his clan, if it wasn't for Itachi slaughtering them all mercilessly. However he was certain that he was stronger for it, even if he would rather have his family back it was a very miniscule consolation for him. He would not underestimate the power of hatred and would only ever direct it towards those that deserved to be torn limb from bloody limb.

Naruto however couldn't stop his gut from wrenching at the dark haired boys appearance, if he hadn't shown up then he could've talked with Sakura for longer and bask in the comfort of her concern for him a little while longer but as it was, that would not be the case, her attention had become fixed on the taller genin just like it always did. Deciding that it would probably be best to take his mind off the situation he quickly started to read the book he had taken out, causing him to miss the apologetic look Sasuke sent his way.

However the part that truly surprised the top of their year was that the pink haired girl noticed the look he sent the third member of the team and seemed to deflate as she realised what she had just done. Seeing her reaction almost hurt him as he realised something he hadn't paid much attention to before, that despite it being his actions that passed the team, his mere presence was practically tearing the group apart as Sakura seemed to instantly lose sight of anything else whenever he was around.

Thinking on everything the dark haired boy began to realise something he had constantly been cursing, that Kakashi was putting a lot of emphasis on teamwork exercises but despite everything he still refused to so much as speak with the other members of the group, instead simply standing with his back to a tree and wait around doing nothing. The sigh he let out upon realising that if _his_ teamwork skills didn't improve then the entire team would probably end up being stuck with teamwork exercises for the rest of their lives, caused the other two to look at him strangely.

Almost immediately he tried to think of how to phrase an idea that popped into his head without making the other two misinterpret the meaning behind it, he really didn't want them to think he thought of them as anything more than teammates even if it was true. Despite everything he said and showed he did like Sakura's constant attention, it made him feel like he would be capable of catching up to his brother once he received the proper training even if deep down he knew that Itachi wasn't considered a genius among the Uchiha clan for nothing and that his brother was already strong enough to wipe out an entire clan by the time he was around the same age he was right now.

"S-Sasuke-kun? Are you alright?" the pink haired girl asked quietly, hoping that their wasn't something wrong with the dark haired boy to make him do something as uncharacteristic as sigh out loud.

"It's nothing… I just had to skip breakfast this morning," he said, hoping he didn't come off as too talkative, though he noted his spiky haired teammate looking at him with a furrowed brow, as if trying to figure out what was going on through his mind.

"Yeah, I had to do the same," Sakura admitted as she put her hand to her stomach as she realised she wasn't the only one that was hungry. She was however looking the wrong way to note the sudden look of comprehension that adorned her blue eyed teammates face as he finally seemed to figure something out.

"I did get something for breakfast but I think I might've already worked it off," Naruto said causing Sakura to look at him as she noted that he seemed significantly less exhausted than when she had arrived, "so why don't we all go and get something to eat before Kakashi-sensei shows up?"

Sasuke had to hide his shock at the blonds suggestion, after all it was the same thing he was planning on doing but didn't know how to do so, it was almost as though the blond had actually succeeded in figuring out his motives without any outside assistance and it unnerved him slightly.

"Naruto, Kakashi-sensei could arrive anytime and you're suggesting we just leave to get something to eat? How stupid are you?" the pinkette asked without her usual annoyance contained in her tone, obviously she actually liked the idea but didn't like the idea of being punished by their sensei.

"Oh come on Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei's always super late anyway and doesn't he keep saying we need to improve our teamwork? What better way is there than getting to know each other over food?" the whiskered blond practically moaned at the girl causing Sasuke to let out a very small smile at the blonds actions right now, they were making everything easier for him through and through… even if he saw the very problem of him doing so.

"Naruto's right, we can just say it's a team building exercise and Kakashi should be happy," the raven haired avenger said as calmly as he could manage, causing the pink haired girl to face him with a small look of shock adorning her face as her brain registered the fact that Sasuke was agreeing with Naruto for once.

"A-alright… but are you sure you can walk Naruto?" the concern in her voice upon voicing the only problem she had with the idea once again made the blond happy that she actually cared about him and once again she was greeted to the sight of his true smile, something that still unnerved her slightly.

"Of course I can, I already told you didn't I, I have super healing!" the boy said as he literally jumped to his feet shocking his pink haired teammate before his legs began to shake slightly and a mop of raven hair appeared under one of his arms as Sasuke suddenly appeared to support him.

"Tch, stop being a moron and calm down… damn you're heavy," the last Uchiha muttered under his breath upon realising the blond was almost crushing his shoulder under the weight he was supporting.

"Thanks teme," surprisingly Sakura noticed something she had never picked up on before, despite the words and the insults the two passed between each other, there was no hostility in their tone, if anything it seemed more like playful banter than actual jabs at each other. It was then that she began to wonder if all this time she had been misinterpreting their interactions with each other.

Naruto immediately remove his arm from Sasuke's shoulder once he felt his legs steady themselves before taking an experimental step and nodding in acceptance when he succeeded in moving. Replacing his bookmark the blond put the book back in his pouch before walking over to his sword and with a mighty heave, lifted it off the ground before placing it in the sheath installed on his jacket.

"Alright, where do you want to go?" the blond asked his teammates, perfectly happy to eat anywhere, even if his favourite was ramen.

XXX XXX XXX

Kakashi couldn't stop a smile from forming under his mask as he watched his genin team actually bonding for once. He had literally been passing a barbeque stand when he noted a trio of familiar voices speaking with each other from within. He would admit that he would have been mad if it had simply been one of them eating on their own but the simple fact that all three of them were together meant that they had met at the training ground and decided as a group to get something to eat.

While such a thing was technically against the shinobi rule book (and he was certain Sakura knew that) he wasn't really one to pay much attention to it anyway so it would be hypocritical of him to punish them for it… especially given the fact that Sasuke wasn't being silent like he usually was and actually seemed to be making an effort to get to know his teammates and vice versa.

It was also obvious that Naruto had indeed done what he had said he would the previous day and bought some regular armour he was wearing underneath his chaincoat, while a cleaver almost as large as the boy in question rested at the side of the table and seemed to unnerve several customers in the stall.

Still, at least this meant he could be late and probably not get shouted at by Sakura, so that was yet another plus in his book as he continued to wander around the village reading his little orange book.

XXX XXX XXX

Sakura couldn't help but let out a smile at the situation she was in, sitting at the same table as her was Sasuke, sure Naruto was there as well but that wasn't as important as the simple fact that her crush was finally talking to her, even if only a little. Though it did seem a little strange to her that he didn't seem to be talking to Naruto and that Naruto didn't seem to care one bit, it literally made her question if the two had some sort of silent understanding of each other that she didn't and that mere thought hurt.

It was scary that the idea that Sasuke and Naruto understood each other was something that was a distinct possibility as opposed to just some idiots rambling and it made her deflate, after all she was supposed to know everything about the dark and mysterious figure that occupied the class… not Shino, he had a strange buzz around him that unnerved her, she was certain human beings weren't supposed to literally buzz like that.

Thinking about how little she actually knew about the raven haired Uchiha made something pop into her mind from their first day as a team and their introductions to Kakashi, more specifically the end of Sasuke's that he claimed were an ambition that he would fulfil as opposed to a mere dream.

"Um, Sasuke-kun, back when we first met Kakashi-sensei you said you wanted to kill a certain man," she started only to stop talking upon seeing the boys dark eyes turn as cold as glaciers and she immediately started sputtering out an apology thinking she had said something wrong.

"He slaughtered every last member of my clan apart from me," the tallest of the group stated in such a tone that the air around them felt like it had frozen. It was both Naruto and Sakura's first time hearing about the event and they both immediately understood why their raven haired teammate wanted to kill this person.

"Who the hell was this bastard? I'll break his legs and drag him back here if I ever meet him!" Naruto proceeded to shout quietly enough to not disturb anyone else in the stall unaware of the fact that it was far more personal than he realised.

"His name is Uchiha Itachi," almost instantly both his teammates eyes widened at the name as they immediately understood why Sasuke seemed to feel like he had to be the one to kill this person, "my big brother."

Sakura felt her blood run cold at the information she had just learned, the target that Sasuke was intending on killing was his own brother who according to him, had killed the rest of his family for one reason or another, the mere idea of one of her own family doing the same scared her as she tried to put herself in the dark haired genin's shoes in order to try and understand him just a little better.

Naruto however was thinking about the situation in a different way, unlike Sakura he had never known the love of a family and was capable of thinking about the entire situation from a slightly different angle from most people, then again it was well known that he wasn't most people.

"If that's the case then is it really alright for you to kill him?" the blond asked, knowing that he would probably get on his teammates bad sides for such a comment but he wasn't finished there, "if this asshole killed all but one member of your family then he's a family killer, but if you kill him, then you will have done practically the same thing as he did, do you really want to become the same as him?"

"No… but there are two things that you need to understand, he killed our clan in cold blood just to 'test his capacity' as he said himself," hearing that made the other members of the team feel slightly sick at the thought that someone could do such a thing for such a trivial reason, "but I only want to kill him to avenge every person he killed and the reason it has to be me is because it is my duty to my clan to bring the person that killed them to justice."

Silence reigned at the table for several minutes as Naruto and Sakura processed what they had just heard, neither of them finding it in their hearts to say anymore to the raven haired avenger as they slowly finished their food, any enthusiasm they once had having been destroyed by what they had heard.

Sasuke had to admit that he felt better than he had for several years, as if a weight had been lifted from his chest, was it possible that he had needed to speak with someone about that night? That for the five years he had been closing himself off from everyone he had been suffering more than he had realised? And while it was strange, Naruto's question to him and somehow managed to help further solidify his resolve to kill Itachi instead of make him question it. However the most shocking part for him was the lack of comfort in the silence he was currently being exposed to, it wasn't something that normally got to him but after finally engaging in a conversation he didn't want it to just end like it had.

"Dobe, what is that book you were reading?" he decided to ask, even if he knew the answer it would help undo the horrible silence that had descended upon them.

"Uh, well I just got a few books on the basics from the library a little while ago so I've just been reading them… though some of it is hard to understand," the blond admitted quietly causing Sakura to look at him in surprise, of all the things she had expected him to do that was not one of them.

"I thought you hated books," she asked him sceptically causing him to look away from her as he muttered something under his breath, "what did you say?"

"I thought so too, but I guess Iruka-sensei is even more boring than books," the blond gave a shallow laugh before he found his face colliding with the floor and the entire stand turning to look at the scene.

"Naruto-baka! Don't call our old sensei boring!" Sakura shouted, earning a few sniggers from the other occupants of the stall upon seeing the blond put down for speaking his mind, something he was well known for doing too often.

"S-sorry Sakura-chan," the blond muttered as he lifted himself off the floor much more easily than he had the previous day, making the girl wonder just how quickly he healed if he was already capable of moving properly after being so close to exhaustion, "but at least I can force myself to pay attention to these books, but no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't stop myself falling asleep during Iruka-sensei's lectures."

The young girl continued to grind her teeth at the blonds statement, the fact that he had literally admitted to sleeping through Iruka's lessons made her angry but then again most of what the boy did made her angry so that was nothing new. The only consolation was that he seemed to at least be trying to improve now that he had graduated from the academy and was officially a ninja.

Of course she didn't know that despite the blond finding their old sensei boring, he was the one in the team that thought the highest of him, after all neither of them had seen him literally take a fuma shuriken for them like he had, nor heard him say something that managed to clear their heads of doubts. Naruto had been right there, had looked into the man's eyes as he threw himself in front of him to protect him from Mizuki and that was one thing that made the blond respect his teacher more than anyone else… but that respect didn't stop him from thinking he was boring.

"Come on, if we've all finished we really should get back to where we're supposed to be meeting Kakashi," the young Uchiha said in the hope that he could stop Sakura from giving Naruto a concussion before their sensei arrived. Fortunately for Naruto Sakura was quick to agree with her crush, just like she always was, it was actually rather depressing now that the blond thought about it.

Shaking his head clear of those thoughts the blond proceeded to heft his sword and place it back into the sheathe on his back before chasing after his teammates while thinking about everything he had to do that day. Well the first thing he had to do would be to ask Kakashi-sensei about chakra control, then there was the point of chakra being like running water, he had to find out what the book meant by that, then he would have to speak with Sakura about her training.

He couldn't stop himself from visibly deflating upon remembering that he had to speak with her about something like that, after all she was Sakura-chan and probably knew just how important training was for ninja but he had to make sure and at the very least try to convince her to take her career seriously. The only problem was that he didn't want her to think that he was trying to be bossy or to embarrass her in front of anyone, so he would just try to think of how best to break into the conversation with her until they were alone.

XXX XXX XXX

Arriving at the training grounds the genin could only look on in shock as Kakashi was literally there waiting for them when they got back. Almost instantly Sakura began to berate herself for going along with the idea after all their sensei was now going to be mad with them for being even later than him.

"Yo," the greeting from the Jōnin immediately caused her to look at him in surprise as he showed no signs of anger towards them for arriving late, "I hope you all enjoyed your meal because today I'm going to let you three decide what you are going to learn."

Upon hearing the Jōnin say that the group couldn't stop themselves from blinking at the man, he already knew what they had been doing and was also planning on letting them choose what they would learn that day, it almost seemed unreal to them.

Sasuke couldn't believe what he was hearing just then, Kakashi was going to let them choose what they would learn about that day when before he would just give them an exercise and read his damnable book. The only problem Sasuke could see with the situation right now was a simple one, he didn't know what he needed to learn to improve. That fact hit him like a sledgehammer as he began to question everything he had previously learned in the hopes of figuring out something to work on, that is until he was brought out of his thoughts by his blond teammate.

"Sakura-chan, teme, do you guys have anything against going over chakra control?" the blond asked them in a questioning tone that caused both of them to look at him in confusion, unlike him they hadn't heard of such a term before and were wondering what he meant.

"So you want to go over chakra control huh? That's interesting, most kids simply say that they want to learn a powerful jutsu or something like that," the one eyed Jōnin said with a hint of joviality in his tone that made the two genin that weren't in the know very confused.

"Well I was going to ask you after training but since you're giving us a chance to do what we want now I thought it would be worth asking about," Naruto responded as his eyes darted from one teammate to another hoping to find some form of acknowledgement from either of the duo, visibly deflating when he didn't find any.

"Uh, Kakashi-sensei, what does Naruto mean by 'chakra control'?" the pink haired genin finally asked, causing the blond to stare at her in shock, he had assumed that since she was the smartest in the team that she would already know about it.

"Chakra control is simply a term used to describe 'using the right amount of chakra for the job and not wasting any', honestly Naruto's chakra control is nonexistent, Sasuke's is reasonable and yours is already quite high," upon hearing the Jōnin's explanation Naruto visibly deflated once again while Sasuke looked surprised upon hearing that Sakura was better at this thing than he was, "but there is a very good reason for that."

"Huh? What do you mean Kakashi-sensei?" the whiskered jinchūriki asked with confusion clear in his tone after hearing the Jōnin say there was a good reason for his poor chakra control.

"It's very simple, the more chakra a person has the harder it is to control and since Naruto's chakra capacity is ridiculously large it is only natural that he lacks the control most other people have," the one eyed ninja stated calmly, causing both of the other genin to look at the blond with raised eyebrows.

"Really?" it was all the blond could say upon hearing that he had at least a decent amount of chakra.

"Naruto, I would die of chakra exhaustion if I made the number of Kage Bunshin you do," instantly all the genin snapped their heads towards the man as he literally told them that the blond had even more chakra than he did and he was a Jōnin, the highest rank in the village outside of the Hokage himself, "it was actually for that reason you could never make a regular bunshin, you simply couldn't use a small enough amount of chakra to not overload the jutsu."

Upon hearing this the other two members once again turned to the blond who looked even more shocked than they did, it was obvious that despite hearing about chakra control he didn't know about his own chakra capacity and finally learning why his bunshins always sucked must have shocked him more than they had expected.

"Are you saying that I failed the graduation exam three times for a jutsu that was impossible for me to use?" the spiky haired blond asked as his hands clenched at the mere idea that if Mizuki hadn't tricked him into stealing the forbidden scroll and got him to learn Kage Bunshin he would've never passed the graduation exam.

"Unfortunately that's correct, it would appear that Iruka didn't realise that you possessed such a large chakra reserve and in turn treated you like he would any other person that couldn't use the bunshin without a medical certificate," the Jōnin stated calmly as he watched Naruto's fist slowly unclench his fist upon hearing that Iruka hadn't been picking on him back then and that it was a genuine mistake, "now Sasuke, Sakura, are you two happy with Naruto's suggestion that you work on chakra control?"

It didn't take long for either of the genin to nod in affirmation, even if one of them wanted to learn a jutsu that could help him kill his brother he knew that he didn't actually have any idea as to exactly what sort of jutsu he wanted to learn from the experienced ninja.

"Alright then, I'll give you three the first stage of chakra control training," the eye smile that the masked man gave upon saying that was almost comforting as the man proceeded to walk towards a tree and patted the trunk with his hand, "okay, now you three are going to learn how to climb trees."

Kakashi wasn't disappointed when the group proceeded to look at him as if he had grown a second head but then again he had intentionally said it that way just to get such a response.

"Uh, Kakashi-sensei how is climbing trees going to help us control our chakra?" Sakura asked him with confusion saturating her voice as she wondered why the man was suggesting such a pointless exercise when he should be telling them something useful.

"Oh that's easy… you aren't allowed to use your hands, " the looks of shock on the genins faces amused him, that is until a certain blond walked over to a tree and looked at it with the utmost scrutiny. He was further surprised when the blond proceeded to place his foot on the bark before pulling it away and putting it back on. If he was perfectly honest with himself Kakashi was actually impressed that Naruto was trying to figure out how to do the exercise without instruction and was even forced to raise an eyebrow as the whiskered child suddenly appeared to have a eureka moment when he tried to remove his foot from the tree and found it glued to the trunk.

"Well would you look at that, Naruto's already figured out how you're supposed to do the exercise," the eye smile the older man gave the blond made it clear that he was at least somewhat impressed with the boys experiment with the tree and his ability to figure out how the technique was supposed to work, though the other genin simply looked on in confusion as the spiky haired blond proceeded to literally walk up the tree a few steps before falling off, "now all he has to do is practice."

"Ow… okay, new rule, bring a mattress next time," Naruto muttered as he got up and looked at the imprint on the ground before wincing and deciding to remove his coat and Zanbatō for this exercise, throwing them down next to the tree he was working on causing his teammates to winced at the loud thud that echoed throughout the area upon his action.

"Uh, Naruto, how did you do that?" the pink haired girl asked her teammate in the hopes of discovering exactly how he did what he did.

"Huh? oh I just sent chakra to my feet, it looks like too little won't stick and too much will push me off," the shortest of the group explained before turning his attention back to his tree until Kakashi said something that made him the object of attention once again.

"That's correct Naruto, however I would advise you to make a running start, the added momentum will make it easier for you to get higher," the Jōnin said calmly, earning a nod of confirmation from the boy as the rest of the genin proceeded to attempt that same thing the blond had just displayed. Of course the whole running start part had another purpose, while the fact they got higher to begin with hid the fact they were making less progress it meant that the group would be better at controlling their chakra while moving than if they just walked up the surface.

Seeing his students all partaking in the exercise with their goals clear he wasn't surprised to see Sakura make it half way up on her first go before she decided to sit on a branch and celebrate her achievement. Of course he knew that the girls mark wasn't really that much of an achievement since she didn't have the large chakra reserves to deal with like her teammates but as long as she didn't just stop the exercise then he didn't mind her taking a little time off here and there.

However the real surprise for him was Naruto. Despite the boys obvious attempts at learning he hadn't expected the blond to match Sasuke's progression up the trunk, the difference in their chakra capacities should've made their progress more along the lines of Sakura and Sasuke but the reality was completely different. It was that moment that the one eyed ninja realised that Naruto would become a top class ninja one day, this simple exercise told him so, if his progress compared to Sasuke was anything to go by then the blond had an almost unnatural growth rate which combined with his immense chakra reserves and natural healing factor would give him the potential to possibly surpass his father… it wasn't even that much of a stretch to believe that the boy could surpass Senju Hashirama himself given the proper training and that was saying something.

"Now now Sakura, just because you made it that high doesn't mean you should slack off, unlike the others you need to increase your chakra reserves as opposed to learn how to control them," he decided to say, earning a downcast look from the girl as her achievement was shrugged off by her sensei before he did his usual action of pulling out his little orange book and taking a seat at the base of a tree.

Upon seeing her sensei take out his book once again a very simple question popped into her head, one that had been bugging her for quite some time though she had decided against asking about it.

"Uh, sensei, how close are you to finishing that book?" her question caused the older ninja to look up at her with a blank stare, exactly how he managed it with only one visible eye was beyond the girl but it was his response that surprised her.

"Sakura, I've read this book so many times I could make a perfect word for word copy of it if I wanted to," that statement made both Naruto and Sasuke lose their grip on the trees they were climbing as both came to a startling conclusion concerning their sensei, he found a book he knew by heart more interesting than them.

"Are we really that boring?" Naruto's question made the Jōnin eye smile at him before simply stating what he considered the truth.

"Everything is boring compared to Icha Icha," the mere fact the Jōnin said it in such way that it sounded as if he was stating a fact like 'Konoha was founded by a truce between the Senju and Uchiha clans' made his students sweatdrop at the man's apparent quirk before they decided that they would probably be better off not getting to know the man any better than they already did.

"Right…" Sakura droned out quietly as her opinion of the man dropped even lower than it had already been, her mother had warned her about perverts and the infamous little orange book they always read and the fact her sensei was an open fan of the book simply made it clear to her that he wasn't a respectable human being.

And with that conversation over Naruto and Sasuke proceeded to continue their exercise fully intent on completing it as soon as possible so they could move onto something more advanced.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto couldn't stop himself from grumbling as he left the bank after depositing his pay check for the day. Not only was the mission one he was unable to practice anything in but he hadn't even managed to get a quarter of the way up the damn tree yet. The only consolation was that he was nearly dead even with Sasuke and was beginning to grow used to the extra weight of his jacket and sword.

But once again he felt like he was forgetting something and was cursing himself for not carrying a notepad to jot down notes to himself with. Kakashi-sensei had also told him that once he had finished the chakra control exercise without his jacket and sword he would have to practice it while wearing them to get a feel for the difference in chakra required to glue the extra weight to the tree.

At least he had managed to get some money and speak with Sakura more than normal. And then it hit him, the thing he had been forgetting to do all day, he still had to speak with Sakura about her lack of effort in training, he just hoped he could find her and speak with her in private.

Of course the main problem that existed with that was that he had no idea where he could find her, he didn't know where she lived since unlike her he wasn't a stalker, instead he had always focussed on trying to become strong enough to attract her attention even if he had failed miserably until just today. And he didn't have enough clues about her to figure out anything like he had with Kakashi-sensei, so it was with a curse at his own incompetence that he proceeded to wander over to the team's training field in order to simply get some more practice at tree climbing.

He didn't like to do something as pathetic as give up but as long as he managed to force himself to talk with her the next day then he could question her over her motivation without having to waste precious training time simply trying to find her.

It was with a sigh that he arrived at the training ground, missing the thudding sounds that emitted from it until he entered and saw that he wasn't the only one there.

Currently running up part of a tree was Sasuke, making it no higher than a quarter of the way before he slipped and proceeded to land on his feet before starting again. While he was surprised to see the raven haired avenger he was even more surprised to see Sakura sitting at the base of a tree watching the last Uchiha try the exercise with varying levels of success.

It was then that his mind was torn in two, on one side was the side that said that he needed to climb a tree and beat Sasuke to the stop while the other told him that he needed to speak with Sakura now before he forgot again. In the end the choice was obvious, he could easily just work after Sasuke finished for the day in order to catch up with his progress but there was no guarantee that he wouldn't forget to speak with his pink haired teammate again and with that in mind, he approached her, steeling his nerves for what he was about to do.

"Um… Sakura-chan, can I speak with you for a little bit?" he asked, hoping the girl would agree to his request but not believing she would agree to him just like that.

"Is something wrong?" her response almost made his heart break, he didn't want to have to talk with her about this but he knew he had to otherwise he would be worrying about her for a much longer time than necessary.

"I… I guess so, could we go somewhere else?" instantly Sakura knew that there really was something wrong with the blond, while he may have regularly been trying to go on a date with her when they were in the academy, he had never asked to speak with her alone before, instead he just asked her on dates at such a regular basis that she had begun to wonder if he had some form of brain damage.

"Sure," she may not have known what it was the blond was concerned with but she was his teammate and would do what she could to help him… outside of starting a relationship that is. She could see the small amount of relief in the blonds features as he displayed signs of being extremely nervous, she didn't know why he would have such a problem but she knew she was going to find out soon enough.

Finally reaching a distance from the third member of the team that the duo deemed suitable, Naruto found himself having second thoughts about what he needed to say to the pink haired girl as she turned to face him and he got a direct look at her large, almost puppy like eyes that made him feel like a monster for trying to destroy the innocence that was contained within them.

"So what do you need to speak with me about?" she asked him in as friendly a tone as she could manage, hoping that the boy would feel more comfortable speaking with her if she was nice, completely unaware that she was having the exact opposite effect on the blond.

"I… I need to speak with you," he started, finding it difficult to bring the words out of his mouth especially now he was facing her and she was being nice to him, "about you."

The surprise that bombarded the girl was easily noticed by the shorter boy as he tried to figure out how best to phrase what he needed to say next, unaware that the girl had already come to an incorrect conclusion over what it was about.

"Look Naruto, you're my teammate so it's only natural for me to care about you but don't take it the wrong way, I have no interest in you as anything more than that so don't waste your breath trying to get me to date you," her words shocked Naruto as he wondered where they had come from as she started to walk away from him, only to freeze upon his next call.

"Dammit Sakura! That isn't the problem! The problem is you!" instantly the blond covered his mouth as his mind processed what he had just yelled at his crush while she froze, never in her life had she ever expected Naruto of all people to say something like that and it shocked her, "I… I'm sorry Sakura-chan… it's just that…"

"Just that what? Is it because I'm weak? Is that it?" immediately the blond felt an immense amount of guilt flow into his being as she turned to face him with an expression that almost looked like she had been betrayed but the worst part of all, was that he couldn't bring himself to deny her accusation, instead he only managed to look at the ground in shame, "that is it… Naruto, do you have any idea how much it hurts to know that I'm not like you or Sasuke-kun? To know that no matter how hard I try I'll never be as strong as either of you simply because I'm not built for fighting?"

"S-Sakura-chan," before the blond could say anything else he found himself cut off by the young girl continuing her verbal assault.

"Haven't you ever wondered why no woman has ever become a Kage?! It's because we're not as strong as men, it's the way thing are and always will be you baka!" and before the blond could say anything else he found himself looking at her back as his hand was raised as if to try and stop her from leaving like that.

"Sakura-chan…" he muttered to himself upon seeing the girl vanish from his sight, "why do you think women are weak?"

It was with a heavy heart that he proceeded to head home, all his previous thoughts about training wiped clear of his mind after the disastrous talk he had had with the pink haired girl.

XXX XXX XXX

Kakashi couldn't help but let out a sigh of disappointment as he left his hiding spot in the trees overlooking his two students terrible conversation. He had realised Sakura had some self confidence issues but in order for her to believe that all women were weak meant that she must have been raised in an environment unsuitable for a Konoichi and it appeared as though it would haunt her for awhile now unless he managed to do something to shock her into understanding the dangers of the real world and understand that the only reason there hadn't been any female kages was because of the very fact that lots of people viewed them as weaker than men, which in turn made it a poor political decision to assign a woman the title.

However that preconception had been shattered by Tsunade of the Sannin decades ago when she proved herself to be equal to her teammates and more than strong enough to strike fear into the hearts of her enemies. Then there was his generation of ninja, with Yūhi Kurenai reaching the rank of Jōnin before the age of thirty, Terumi Mei the only person known to possess two kekkei genkai and the leader of the Kiri faction that rebelled against the Yondaime Mizukage, then there was of course the Sandaime Tsuchikage's granddaughter, Kurotsuchi, who was yet another woman that achieved the rank of Jōnin by the age of thirty and they were just the most famous of his generation alone.

In the end however it was obvious that Sakura didn't know about any of these people and even if she did, she obviously thought she didn't possess the potential to reach their level. Because of that he knew he had to do something drastic in order for the young girl to understand just how wrong her thoughts were on the matter.

It was just a shame he would have to see the Hokage about it in order to do anything he could think of to help the girl.


	5. Chapter 5

A loud ringing filled the air within Naruto's bedroom as he began to squirm under his duvet before smacking a hand onto the off switch on his alarm clock. Lifting his head he looked out of the window to see that the sun had yet to rise, staining the sky with countless stars on top of a pitch black background.

Letting out a loud yawn, he forced his body to rise from the warm mattress so he could make his way to the shower for his morning jump start.

He was immediately jolted into full awareness as the near freezing water pelted against his skin before he began to rinse his hair, basking in the horribly cold liquid that was waking him up better than anything else he had ever tried.

Finally satisfied with his level of awareness he finally started to wash himself, ensuring that his hair was grease free, sure it didn't change the fact his hair naturally spiked but he did prefer to have his hair feeling soft instead of grimy.

Twenty minutes after stepping into the shower the young blond emerged from it, easily drying himself off with a towel before putting his clothes on and walking out into the rest of his apartment.

Without a care in the world, the whiskered genin proceeded to start the preparations for his morning ramen by putting a pan of water on the hob to boil.

He did note that he didn't feel as tired as he did when he woke up the previous morning, contributing that fact to the idea that he was simply getting used to early mornings.

It was with a little more attentiveness that he proceeded to sit at the table and pull out 'the basics of chakra' from his pouch, immediately opening the book and skimming over what he had already read before noting that the water was now boiling.

He smiled a soft smile as he got up and poured the water into the cup of instant ramen, before taking it to his table with a pair of chopsticks ready for the noodles to be eatable.

His mind focused on the book he was reading, as he slowly ate the noodles he had prepared to start his day while he read about elemental affinities, sure he wouldn't try to do anything concerning that until his chakra control was up to scratch but he could at least learn about it so that he knew what to expect later.

Finally finishing his breakfast the spiky haired youth binned the empty cup of ramen and without any hint of concern, put on his jacket and sword, instantly feeling the extra weight that he was going to get used to sooner or later (though given how quickly he was adjusting he would assume it would be sooner).

Opening his front door he immediately started jogging at a sedate pace towards the front gate fully intending on increasing his strength and speed with his morning workout before he would meet his teammates at the usual training ground for their sensei provided training.

Like usual he reached the gate and without any further ado, he proceeded to start running along the outside of the village, fully intending on completing a lap and hopefully, he'd be just that little bit less tired than he was by the time he reached the training ground yesterday.

His muscles burned as he forced himself through the constant movement, his mind focusing on the simple fact that he needed to put in more effort if he ever wanted to become stronger.

Eventually he arrived, noting that his body was already growing used to the stress of his new morning routine. So without saying a word, he quickly proceeded to pull out his Zanbatō and start practicing his swings.

They were very simple, just practicing swinging it both horizontally and vertically, the vertical swings were proving significantly harder than the horizontal swings, with upward swings proving that going against gravity made doing a relatively simple exercise far more difficult, while swinging downwards had him attempting to stop the blades momentum from embedding it in the ground in front of him.

He kept swinging the blade, hoping to increase his arm strength by wielding the massive blade as much as possible. Eventually he reached his goal of twenty five of each set for a total of one hundred, feeling his muscles burn painfully as he overexerted them to a level that could cripple a normal person, though he knew that he didn't have to worry about that, the Kyūbi would make sure of that.

Burying the blade tip first in the ground he gasped for breath and tried to stop his heart from hammering away in his chest from his intensive exercise, hoping that he would recover enough by the time Kakashi-sensei got there that he could participate in whatever training he would give them that day.

"Are you finally done dobe?" came a calm call from behind him, making him note that he had completely missed Sasuke arrive at the training field and take his usual place leaning against a tree.

"Y-yeah," the blond answered while panting from the exertion he had undergone, "h-how… long… have you… been here?"

"A couple of minutes," the dark haired genin admitted calmly as he watched his teammate lean on the blade and continue panting for breath after his rather heavy workout. Silence reigned for several minutes as Sasuke proceeded to try and phrase his next question without making himself sound concerned, "do you have any idea where Sakura is?"

"No, it does seem weird, she's normally here by now," the spiky haired youth admitted before shaking his head clear of those thoughts, "well I guess it is possible she just slept in, let's just wait until Kakashi-sensei gets here."

"Hn," and with that the clearing was left in silence outside of Naruto's heavy breathing as he moved to sit at the base of a tree and pull out one of the books he had brought with him today.

Time seemed to pass slowly for the duo as they absently awaited their teammates arrival, convinced that their perception of time was playing tricks on them as opposed to them having actually spent that long there.

"Yo," came a calm call from the edge of the clearing that made the two genin look up in shock at Kakashi walking towards them while Sakura was still nowhere to be seen, "been waiting long?"

The silver haired Jōnin was actually slightly surprised to see something he didn't expect to see from his students this early, fear in their eyes.

"Sasuke! If Kakashi-sensei's already here then…" Naruto started only to trail off at the end, obvious panic in his tone at the fact Sakura still wasn't there.

"Something's happened to Sakura," the raven haired Uchiha finished for him, feeling the same fear as his blond haired teammate. Not that he'd admit it to anyone, after all he was an avenger, he didn't have time for friends… even if they did fill a small portion of the hole in his heart.

"Calm down you two," the one eyed Jōnin said in a placating manner as he watched the duo get worked up over their missing teammate, "I already sent Sakura for some… special training."

Both of the newly minted genin picked up on the hesitant pause that their sensei made before mentioning what she was doing, meaning there was only one possible explanation that came to the minds of the two genin.

"What the hell do you mean 'special training'?" Naruto asked with his teeth gritting together in anger at the thought that their sensei may be putting their teammate at risk and not tell them exactly what it was she was undergoing.

"I'll admit, I wanted to hold off on this for as long as possible but after overhearing your conversation last night," Naruto's eyes widened in shock at the fact his attempt to convince Sakura she needed to train was responsible for the current situation, "I decided that she needed to see the darker side of life as a ninja to realise exactly what is at stake."

"What do you mean by that? Where is she?" Naruto asked with his heart racing as adrenaline coursed through his body at the emotions he was feeling over his teammates predicament and how little he knew of it.

"She is currently learning exactly what happens to ninja that get captured by sitting in on T&I for the day," the silver haired man informed the boy seriously, earning widened eyes from Sasuke at the admittance.

"Huh? What's T&I?" the whiskered blond asked in confusion, making Kakashi let out a sigh upon remembering that despite his current dedication to learning and improving, Naruto had been a problem child and a regular truant from the academy. Sasuke however simply shook his head at his teammates lack of knowledge.

"He means the torture and interrogation department," the raven haired Uchiha informed his fellow orphan calmly, earning wide eyes as the blond put two and two together.

"That's right, right now Sakura is seeing first hand, exactly what sorts of methods are used to extract information from enemy ninja… and given exactly who she's watching, they're probably going to be some of the more brutal methods of information extraction," the one eyed ninja admitted with a sideways glance that looked almost like shame.

"Why are you making her see something like that?" the youngest in the clearing asked, his voice nearly cracking at the thought that currently plagued his mind.

"Naruto, don't ask questions you already know the answer to," the oldest said calmly, earning a grimace from the jinchūriki.

Because the man was right. Naruto knew why Sakura was being shown what could happen if she wasn't strong enough, he knew that Kakashi was planning on making her either put proper effort into her training… or drop out of the ninja program altogether.

And despite his reluctance to admit it, he expected the pink haired girl to drop out. She had already displayed the mentality that konoichi were weaker than shinobi and being shown what could happen would probably be enough to push her away from her current career choice and into something less dangerous.

That thought made him churn inside. He may have involuntarily caused team seven to lose a member and all because he wanted to stop them from losing one.

Of course it would be better to lose her of her own volition but he didn't want her to go at all, he wanted her to train like him and Sasuke and become an integral part of the group.

But he doubted that would happen. He doubted she wouldn't cut her loses and run after seeing the risks of being a shinobi.

"Anyway, since Sakura is currently indisposed, why don't you two continue with the tree climbing exercise you started yesterday?" the silver haired Jōnin asked the duo snapping Naruto out of his funk and earning a nod of acceptance from him, after all, he may be worried about his teammate but in the end, he was still aiming to be Hokage and he couldn't do that without getting stronger.

The day dragged on slowly for the blond as he focused his entire concentration into the exercise, his coat and cleaver already resting on the ground below, ready for him to pick up when he had finished the exercise… either to return to the village with, or restart the exercise with the added weight to worry about.

Looking to his side, he focused on the marks his raven haired teammate left on the tree, inwardly cringing when he saw that the slightly older boy was higher than him, even if they had practiced different lengths of time the previous day.

Taking a deep breath, he thought back on Kakashi's words the previous day… that chakra was harder to control when you had more of it, meaning despite his apparent lack of progress, the fact he wasn't really that far behind his teammate was actually reassuring when it came down to his growth.

So with renewed determination, he returned to the exercise, attempting to get the control down as much as possible, after all, if he really did have too much chakra then he would need to learn how to use smaller quantities if he ever wanted to learn any proper jutsu.

And so with that in mind, he let himself continue working hard in the hope that he would one day reach a level where he could be named Hokage.

XXX XXX XXX

Sakura couldn't stop herself from learning over and emptying the contents of her stomach onto the floor, the scene before her was just that gruesome.

The part that really got her though, was that the person that committed the acts that made her sick to her core, was a woman in her early twenties by the name of Mitarashi Anko.

She had been surprised when she had been called out before the crack of dawn by none other than her sensei, bright and early, his normally jovial mood non-existent in the morning breeze.

And he had brought her here.

She hadn't even been given a chance to get dressed and was currently being forced to stand and watch a full on torture session in her light red nightie.

"Stand straight," a firm voice ordered from beside her, making her stiffen and do as instructed, honestly the bear of a man that was supervising the session scared her just as much as the sadist in the cell, after all, Anko just made her think of a gender swapped Naruto with a love of blood… this man, this Morino Ibiki was just outright terrifying in his presence and mannerisms.

And the way he interrogated others was even scarier as well, after all, seeing someone break another's body was one thing, to see them systematically deconstruct and destroy their mind was another thing entirely. With a broken body the victim would still look at the captor with a hint of defiance in their eyes… with a broken mind they were just pitiful wreaks, begging to be killed as they suffered a trauma much worse than damaged organs.

And it was all because the victims were too weak to stop themselves from being caught.

That thought chilled her to the bone, that this was the fate that would await her if she continued on the path of the ninja, that she would one day be captured and broken like the people she was currently being forced to watch… just thinking about it made her want to run from this section of the village, to run back home and cry… but she didn't, not because she was being forced to stay there by the man named Ibiki but because she couldn't move.

She didn't know why she couldn't move, why she couldn't look away, the mere fact that this so called 'lesson' was making her feel so sick should've made her run like her life depended on it but she couldn't, honestly she couldn't even look away unless she was vomiting… her eyes and mind were just drawn towards the bloody scene that was happening right before her eyes.

And that disturbed her.

She didn't like the fact that she wasn't in control of her body, such a thing was terrifying for someone who had trained as a ninja after all, it did suggest that they were caught in a genjutsu… but she knew she wasn't, she knew that it wasn't someone else interfering with her actions and that she was simply glued to the scene because it was so horrifying she couldn't look away.

"Do you understand why you were sent here now?" Ibiki asked from beside her, earning a strained nod off the pink haired girl who still couldn't bring herself to look away.

"B-because that could be me if I stay in the shinobi program…" Sakura responded in a quiet voice before shivering at the thought of going through what she was currently seeing.

"If you continue the way you currently are," the bear of a man stated seriously, finally making the young girl look away from the scene and towards him.

"W-what do you mean by that M-Morino-san?" she asked him nervously, earning a stern glare off the man.

"I've heard off Kakashi that you don't take your training seriously, that you just sit down and try to look pretty," the scowl that rested on the man's face was clear to the young girl as she cowered before the interrogator, "that sort of attitude will get you into this sort of situation if you don't pull your finger out your ass and start working."

Sakura could do nothing more than try and make herself smaller when faced with the hostility of the older ninja, however that didn't change one simple fact.

"B-but I'm just a girl," she muttered piteously, earning an even harsher glare off the man as he studied her for a few moments before making his own retort.

"Then leave," he said coldly, making her blink in surprise at how easily he was telling her to go, "quit the shinobi program and live like the civilian you clearly are."

Sakura felt her mind freeze upon hearing the head of T&I's statement, why was he telling her to quit the program? Regardless of how much she tried she would never be on par with someone like Sasuke, thinking otherwise was just wishful dreaming.

"W-what do you mean quit the program?" she asked, still unable to comprehend why the older man was making his statement, surely she shouldn't quit just because she wasn't as strong as her teammates, right?

"Senju Tsunade, Uzuki Yūgao, Yūhi Kurenai, Mitarashi Anko, Inuzuka Tsume, Utatane Koharu, Uchiha Mikoto, Uzumaki Kushina and Shizune," he listed out, making the pink haired girl blink in surprise, "they either are, or all were notable Konoha Konoichi that I have personally met in my life, every one of them reached at the very least Tokubetsu Jōnin in rank with most reaching full Jōnin."

Sakura's eyes widened at that information, the man was listing off Konoha Konoichi that had reached the rank of Jōnin, the mere thought made her feel jealous.

"And do you want to know what they all had in common?" Ibiki asked her seriously, making her look at him with expectant eyes, "they all worked themselves to the bone to reach that level."

Sakura found herself rooted to the spot as she contemplated his words.

"And do you want to know something else?" her mind wasn't even allowed the time to go over everything before the scarred man continued, "Kakashi believes you have the talent to reach the same level as those women."

And with that the pinkette was left with her mind in pieces, these women were all strong enough to be considered elite members of the village and Kakashi believed she had the potential to become their equal? But why? Why was he certain she could reach that sort of rank when she was so physically frail, when her chakra reserves were barely enough to climb a tree for ten minutes? Why did he have faith in her when she was so weak?

"B-but why? Why would he think I could be like that?" she asked the bear of a man, earning stern glare off him.

"I don't know, all I know is that for some reason he believes in you," the interrogator stated sternly, making her look down, "but I'm having trouble seeing why."

Upon hearing that Sakura could feel nothing but disappointment. She felt so disappointed in herself for being so weak despite the fact that her sensei apparently believed in her but she simply couldn't bring herself to see why he would put his faith in someone as weak as her.

Ibiki for his part, did actually understand what his senior saw in the girl, bucket loads of talent stunted by psychological issues, however the only way to make the girl understand that she had the talent would be to push her, to force her to accept that she wasn't in a career where she could slack off and still hope to get by, if she continued to slack off then she would face either death, or a fate worse than death.

Of course it was Kakashi's job to keep her in the forces, he didn't care if she left or not, without the motivation to get stronger then she was simply dead weight and therefore pushing her to leave was the best he was prepared to do, if she didn't then the chances were that she would work to get stronger.

"C-can I go now?" the pinkette asked quietly, hoping that she could get out of this place and get somewhere peaceful to think, she would also have to talk to Kakashi-sensei if she wanted to find out why he believed in her.

"Fine, leave and don't come back," the scarred interrogator said with possibly the coldest look she had ever seen in a person's eyes. Upon seeing that stare, she could do little more than try and make herself as small as possible and slink away from the bear of a man as she made her way out of the T&I department with her head held low.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto let out a grunt as he fell from the tree once again.

His progress was slow, at least as far as he was concerned, though thankfully his teammate didn't seem to be faring much better at the moment, which meant that he wasn't really as far behind as he felt. So with his determination still running strong, he faced the tree once again only to freeze upon hearing his sensei call out.

"Alright, that's enough you two," Kakashi had to admit he was impressed with the duo's determination to get the exercise down, then again he knew he shouldn't have been, both had their reasons for getting stronger, Naruto wanted to become Hokage and earn the villages recognition and Sasuke wanted to avenge his family.

While he may not have agreed with the raven haired Uchiha's motivation the fact remained that he didn't have the right to comment on the young clan heir's circumstances. His own father may have died but that had been suicide as opposed to being brutally slaughtered by someone he trusted.

"But I can still go on Kakashi-sensei," Naruto decided to say with obvious displeasure at the thought of being torn from the exercise too early. However he stopped complaining once he heard the silver haired Jōnin's next words.

"I know and you will come back and continue the exercise after we've all gotten something to eat," the cycloptic ninja stated calmly as he watched Sasuke end his latest run and turn around with a contemplative look on his face. Kakashi thought it was pretty obvious that Sasuke and Naruto didn't really dislike each other, the fact was that they were so similar that they were capable of relating to each other far better than they could with anyone else in their year… it wouldn't hurt that Sasuke's parents wouldn't have forbid him from associating with the blond when he was younger, not with how close they had been to Naruto's parents.

And for that reason, the two were probably closer to each other than anyone else and no matter how much they may deny it or scowl at each other, the fact remained that they were probably the closest thing to a friend the other had.

"Tch… I guess I should eat something before it effects my performance," the raven haired genin said calmly before walking over to the Jōnin. It was pretty obvious the boy was just using that excuse to try and keep the others at a distance, while he may have made a major leap forward in forming a true bond in the village, he still wasn't ready to accept the need for such a thing outwardly.

"Alright, so where do you want to go?" the silver haired Jōnin asked with an eye smile, earning an excited expression off the spiky haired blond.

"Ichiraku's!" Kakashi would have to remember to tell the blond to calm down when it came to wherever they would end up eating, he was pretty sure he'd end up getting a major headache if he didn't.

"What do you say about that Sasuke?" the one eyed ninja asked, earning a grunt and a shrug off the avenger, making him sweatdrop at the fact the boy was that unresponsive to a mere question, "then Ichiraku's it is, come on, I guess I'll pay for your meals."

It wouldn't take long for the man to regret his decision.

XXX XXX XXX

The three male members of team seven were soon walking into Ichiraku's ramen stand, their minds set on eating their fill and spending a little more time with the rest of the team, the only problem any of them felt there was, was the lack of the fourth member of the team.

Kakashi hoped that Sakura would return soon, he didn't want her to spend too much time in T&I, just enough for her to realise the danger of not working to better yourself. Sure it may be hypocritical of him to talk of his student working to better herself, he didn't bother doing that anymore, then again he was already an S-rank ninja as far as the other countries bingo books were concerned, sure he may not have the raw power of the Yondaime Raikage, the Jinton or flight of the Sandaime Tsuchikage or the gold dust of the Yondaime Kazekage, but he had diversity.

While most of the Kages possessed a single skill that they trained to a point where they could rely almost exclusively on them, he made up for that lack of a single skill by having so many that he usually had some form of counter for any technique sent his way… he was like the Sandaime Hokage in that respect, though he would admit that he wasn't anywhere near the man's level even if he took the Hokage's advanced age into account.

And that was mostly a difference in experience and raw power.

He was certain that if the man was in his prime, then he would've been a match for any of the previous Hokage's or even Uchiha Madara, that reputation was probably the reason why Konoha hadn't been thrown into another war after the Kyūbi attacked twelve years ago.

Then again, he didn't intend on taking the mantle of Hokage so why bother gaining the strength to be one?

"Hey Oji-san! Can I get a large miso ramen with roasted pork fillet!" Kakashi had to look at his sword using genin with a blank expression at the far too casual way he had ordered his food.

"Sure thing Naruto," the cook said without even looking up, telling the Jōnin that Naruto was such a regular here that the owner didn't even need to look to know it was him.

"And I think I'll have a large miso ramen with eggplant," the masked Jōnin said through his mask, making the chef look up to see that Naruto wasn't alone.

"One medium vegetable ramen," Sasuke said with a disinterested tone as he looked around the small stand and quickly dismissed everything as unimportant.

"Of course, coming right up," Teuchi would definitely be happy at the extra custom, sure he may do well enough as is but this was a chance to win over two new regulars so he would definitely go out of his way to make their orders as good as possible.

"So, I take it you're a regular here Naruto," Kakashi started, deciding to make a little conversation since he was sure his two genin wouldn't start without something else to set them off.

"Yeah, I come here pretty much every day," the spiky haired youth admitted without shame as he waited on his order with obvious impatience.

"And what about you Sasuke?" the one eyed Jōnin asked with an eye smile, earning a small 'tsk' off the raven haired boy.

"It's my first time here," he admitted, earning a nod of acceptance from the oldest of the trio.

"Ah, so have you ever tried ramen before?" the most experienced of the group asked with his typical eye smile.

"No," came the raven haired genin's response, making his blond teammate splutter in shock at his quick dismissal of what he considered the 'food of the gods'.

"What do you mean no?! how can you have never had ramen before?" the whiskered child asked in disbelief, earning a blank look off his teammate.

"Quite easily," Sasuke's response was short, sweet and void of emotion as he simply waited for the bowls of noodles to come.

Naruto for his part, didn't know how to react to that response and was just left gaping jawed at his teammate, unable to believe that he hadn't so much as tasted ramen before.

"Well, here are your orders," Teuchi finally called as he placed three bowls of steaming hot ramen in front of the trio, earning a loud 'Itadakimasu' from the regular and a pair of much more subdued statements of the word from the other two males.

And with that the trio started eating… well two started eating and the third simply imitated a vacuum cleaner and cleared his bowl in a matter of seconds.

"That… is probably the fastest I've ever seen anyone outside of an Akimichi eat," Kakashi stated dumbfounded at his blond haired students monstrous appetite as Sasuke watched on in disbelief himself.

"Seconds please," and without any waiting, another bowl was placed in front of the whiskered genin, "thanks ojisan… Itadakimasu!"

And once again the blond devoured the bowl before ordering another one, making the Jōnin pale because of one simple fact… he had already said he would pay for the food.

"Remind me never to pay for Naruto's meal again," was all he managed to get out as the blond continued his destruction of the ramen stands stock.

XXX XXX XXX

Kakashi was nearly crying as he felt his now significantly lighter wallet resting in his hands.

In the end Naruto had eaten seventeen bowls of the noodles and only stopped because Sasuke and Kakashi had decided it was time to leave and get back to training… Naruto had quietly protested before the Jōnin paid the owner and swore never to treat his student to ramen ever again.

At least Sasuke only had two medium bowls… though it was a surprise that the usually stoic avenger seemed to like the food… then again it really was the best ramen in Konoha, if not all of Hi No Kuni. He would admit it wasn't the healthiest diet for a person to live off but it was certainly nice… not quite as nice as Naruto made it out to be but still very good despite being one of the cheaper types of meal a person could buy.

But it was only cheep if you ate normal quantities and Naruto didn't eat normal quantities.

He had to admit, that his two genin didn't seem to talk much at all when together, it was almost as if neither felt the need to talk about anything… it certainly made his goal of bringing the team together more awkward, especially if his new guess that Sakura was the instigator of conversation in the team was right.

He briefly wondered if he would've been better off not giving her to Ibiki for the day before shaking his head. It wouldn't do to regret that decision, if she dropped out of the shinobi program then at the very least her death wouldn't be on his conscience.

It would just make keeping the team together more difficult.

The trio walked at a reasonable pace back towards their training grounds, after all, they were going to continue their attempts at the tree climbing exercise regardless of their female teammates absence…then they stopped upon seeing a familiar head of cherry blossom coloured hair.

"Sakura-chan!" Kakashi nearly winced upon hearing his sword carrying student call out her name, however his wince was less to do with the blond and more to do with the look on the pinkette's face… he knew he had asked Ibiki to go easy on her but he didn't know if the man had decided to take his request on board and even if he did take it easy on her, he was still a master of getting under his victims skin and tearing away at their mental defences.

"Uh… hello Naruto," her call was anything but enthusiastic, it was clear to the one eyed Jōnin that she had been damaged by the scarred interrogator but in the end, he wasn't certain whether she had been damaged like muscles, capable of repairing themselves to better cope with the strain put on them, or a china vase that could never truly be fixed no matter how hard you tried.

"Are you alright?" the whiskered blond asked with concern clear in his tone as he looked at the girl that was normally so happy and bright as if she had lost a limb, earning a sad smile off her as she tried to reassure him.

"Sorry, I'm just thinking about some things," she said with a sad smile adorning her face before she looked at her sensei, mostly ignoring Sasuke in the process, "Kakashi-sensei, I need to speak with you… in private."

Kakashi let out a small sigh as he noted the expressions of shock on his other students faces, he understood what she was wanting to talk about, after all, she was either going to ask him to remove her from the shinobi program or ask his opinion on the prospect of if she should remain before using what he told her as a base for her future decision.

"Alright then, Naruto, Sasuke, go on ahead and continue with the tree climbing exercise," the one eyed teacher ordered them in a friendly manner, making the blond glance at his pink haired teammate with a concerned expression before letting out a sigh and making his way towards the training grounds with Sasuke not far behind him.

"Well then, let's go somewhere more private for our talk okay?" and with that said, the masked ninja put his hand on the young teens shoulder and with a quick shunshin, reappeared on top of the Hokage monument.

He idly noted that she was obviously disorientated from the sudden change in surroundings and most likely, the pressure placed on her body from moving at such speed but she quickly shook herself out of her spell and looked at him seriously.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" he asked her without any particular inflection in his tone as he looked at the pink haired genin who looked down nervously before opening her mouth to speak.

"Morino-san said that you believed I could become a good Konoichi," she told him with obvious nervousness in her tone, earning a nod off the silver haired Jōnin, "why? What do I have that could make me a good Konoichi?"

Kakashi found himself letting out a sigh at her question as he decided to explain the matter to her clearly and simply, "what don't you have that would stop you from becoming a good Konoichi?"

Sakura blinked at her sensei's response to her question before he decided to continue his analysis of her abilities.

"You have excellent chakra control, you are obviously very bright when you apply yourself and you obviously care for your teammates," he stated calmly as she looked at him with a scrutinising expression adorning her face, "the fact is that as far as Konoichi go, all you lack is motivation to train properly."

"The fact is that Konoichi are usually better at precision asks while shinobi are better at large scale destruction… there are exceptions but they're just that, exceptions," the one eyed Jōnin stated calmly as his student looked down to the side as she obviously thought over what he was telling her, "the fact is that all you lack as far as being a ninja goes, is the ability to work hard to improve your skills, if you manage to find motivation and work hard, I think you could become one of the villages greatest ninja full stop, let alone one of its greatest Konoichi."

Sakura for her part simply stood there, her head downcast as she thought over his words, he knew that she would probably have a hard time accepting them, he was her sensei after all so it was obvious that she would think he would show some form of favouritism towards his own students… even if such a thought was wrong, he wouldn't dare hype up a student's potential unless he truly believed it was there, doing so with anyone could obviously result in them getting a big head and dying because they were cocky.

He knew Sakura wasn't cocky, more than that, he knew she had immense potential courtesy of her level of knowledge comprehension and chakra control, both vital parts of both Genjutsu and Iryōjutsu… though admittedly the question of Sakura's attention to detail wasn't entirely answered yet… still, even without that it was possible for her to become a second Tsunade if she put effort into her training.

"Do you really think that or are you just saying it because I'm your student?" yes, that was the question he was expecting to come from her lips, one that he answered with a smile.

"Sakura, if I didn't think you had the potential then I would have advised you to quit the ninja program," he told her calmly, earning a couple of blinks of surprise from the young girl, "my first lesson to the team was important, 'those that break the rules are trash but those that abandon their comrades are worse than trash', if I tried to trick you into staying in the shinobi program when I didn't think you had it in you then I wouldn't simply be abandoning a comrade but actively betraying them… and that is something I refuse to do no matter what."

It was clear that the pinkette found his words shocking but they were true, he really did feel that putting a student at risk like that was a betrayal and he refused to act like that.

"What would you suggest I do to get stronger?" her question made him smile slightly, apparently she wanted to get an idea of how she could improve before making her final decision, honestly he was perfectly happy with that decision and decided to give her a basic list of what she could do to improve herself.

"There are four main things I would suggest you work on if you want to stay in the shinobi program," he started as her eyes glued to him with a look of concentration on her face, "one, work on your physical conditioning, two, work on your chakra reserves, three, start learning genjutsu and four, start learning Iryōjutsu."

Sakura started to frown upon hearing his list of things she could do to improve before she opened her mouth to voice her dissatisfaction at his suggestions, "those all seem vague and basic at best."

"That is because right now you are essentially a blank slate," Kakashi decided to explain seriously, making her face twist into a minor frown, "you have no skills worth mentioning outside of your impressive chakra control so I can't narrow down ways for you to improve because there are just too many right now."

It was obvious that the young girl found his explanation depressing, after all, she had apparently prided herself on being one of the top scorers in the academy, even if most of those scores did come from her book smarts as opposed to the physical examinations like taijutsu (though apparently her forms were good, she just lacked the strength to challenge most of the males in her class).

"So, do you want to take a little more time to make your decision?" he asked her seriously, causing the young girl to shake her head in the negative.

"No thank you," she said as calmly as she could manage, though he could still pick up on undercurrents of nervousness in her tone, "I wish to remain in the shinobi forces… please teach me how to become strong."

"Alright then, just remember if you ever feel like you can't cope then you're free to change your mind," the silver haired ninja stated with an eye smile, making her smile widen slightly, "well then, I guess it's time to get back to your teammates."

Sakura simply nodded her head in affirmation as he once again put his hand on her shoulder before using a simple shunshin to transport them both to the training grounds where the two male genin were still running up their trees and marking their progress with their kunai.

That progress soon halted as both members of the team proceeded to turn to face their returning member, who despite the conviction she had managed to muster, was still clearly uncertain about her decision.

"Sakura-chan? Are you alright?" and once again it was Naruto that immediately decided to check on the pink haired teammate, though he noticed that Sasuke was obviously holding his piece not so much out of callousness but more likely, a desire to keep everyone at arm's length.

"Y-yeah, thanks Naruto," the lack of confidence in the young girls tone was obvious to anyone that heard her, obviously she still felt uncertain about how to feel concerning what she was exposed to in T&I but at least she wasn't treating being a shinobi like a game anymore.

"Alright, Naruto, Sasuke, you can talk to Sakura later if you want to, for now, focus on the tree climbing exercise," the silver haired ninja stated bluntly, earning a small scowl off the blond, obviously he wasn't happy about being told to leave his teammate who obviously wasn't in the best condition alone, "look, I understand you're concerned about Sakura but the fact remains that she is alright, just a little uncertain after her tour of T&I, outside of that she's fine."

Naruto quickly looked at the pink haired girl, who meekly nodded to confirm her sensei's words, earning a frown off the blond who glanced at the teacher before returning to the exercise he had been given previously.

"Alright Sakura, what would you like to do first?" he asked her with a soft tone, earning a small frown off the young pinkette.

"Iryōjutsu, at least if I learn that I can help the team if they ever get hurt," she decided, obviously thinking over where she would be most useful as far as the team went… sure she would be good as a support member with genjutsu skills but Iryōjutsu was probably a better choice, after all, while genjutsu could help her teammates avoid injury, it wouldn't guarantee that they would and knowing how to heal them would prove beneficial.

"Alright, then I'll assign you a bit of reading for later," he told her calmly, "after all, you need to know anatomy inside and out if you want to become a skilled medic."

"So it'll take a long time to learn Iryōjutsu?" the pink haired genin asked with a frown, earning a sigh off the Jōnin.

"It isn't the jutsu that take a long time to learn, it's the knowledge associated with it, plus I'm not the best person to ask about Iryōjutsu if I'm honest with you," with admitted with a shrug, earning another frown off the young konoichi.

"What do you mean you're not the best person to ask about it?" the long haired girl asked, earning a sigh off the more experienced ninja.

"Well, you see I have a few disadvantages when it comes down to chakra control," he admitted with a shrug as Sakura's eyes narrowed in confusion, "you see, my left eye isn't my own, it was given to me by a teammate who lost his life in the third shinobi war," he noted that her eyes widened in shock at that admittance, "his body was crushed during a cave in and he asked our other teammate to give me his eye after I lost my own to an Iwa Jōnin, unfortunately the eye he gave me is… chakra extensive, resulting in me having to cover it to minimize the strain it places on my reserves."

"On top of that my reserves were large enough that I managed to attain the rank of Jōnin by the time I was thirteen years old," he noted that his student was once again shocked by his admittance but he decided to carry on anyway, "because of that, while my chakra control may be good, it isn't smooth enough to use Iryōjutsu without putting the patient at risk, it's a bit like how I need to use my left eye if I want to use any advanced genjutsu."

He noted that Sakura was obviously shocked at his explanation, then again it was likely that she had never thought about how long he had been a Jōnin, let alone considered the fact that by the time she had become a genin, he was already preparing himself for the highest rank available in the Konoha military forces outside of Hokage itself.

"W-when did you graduate?" she asked him, clearly shocked at the thought of someone having such a rank at such a young age.

"When I was five years old," and he could see the look of disbelief in her eyes upon hearing his admittance, then again, the academy was a different institute during peace to what it was during war, in times of peace it paced the students with the intention of giving them time to develop the musculature to fight properly, during war time, it worked the students hard to maximise their skills as early as possible.

Kakashi was simply one of those that succeeded in learning everything in record time.

"H-how?" she started only for the one eyed ninja to cut her off with a smile.

"Because I was trained during war time," he stated simply before expanding on that statement, "the academy has different approaches to training ninja during war than it does during peace, it is rare for someone to graduate the academy before the age of ten during times of peace but during war it was rare for someone to graduate after the age of ten, with most ninja graduating at around eight years old."

Sakura found herself staring in disbelief as he explained the difference war could make to a graduating class, well, not so much disbelief but she was definitely shocked by what her teacher told her.

"Now, are you finished asking questions? If so then I would like to start teaching you the most basic Iryōjutsu I know," and with that, the silver haired Jōnin started the pinkettes lessons on medical techniques.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto flopped down on his bed as his mind went over the events of the day, more specifically, the fact that Sakura was beginning to learn something special off their sensei… he didn't mind that the man was teaching her something, it wasn't like he was jealous, he still had his own training to finish after all.

If anything he was happy that she was now starting to take her training seriously, even if it took her seeing something as cruel as T&I to get her to do it.

He just hoped she wouldn't be too damaged by what she experienced there, after all, he had heard all sorts of stories about that department when he was younger and merely thinking of going there gave him the creeps.

But at least now he knew that she would work to make herself strong enough to not need him or Sasuke to protect her, that was a plus.

He just hoped she would keep working hard and learn enough to protect herself from whatever happens during any of the higher ranked missions they would eventually take… at least he had enough to do till Kakashi-sensei decided they were ready for a higher ranked mission, he didn't know what he'd do if they weren't getting trained like they currently were and he hadn't decided to ask for help back when he started his time as a genin.

Maybe he would've gotten tired of D-ranks and demanded a C-rank when they weren't ready for it?

With that thought in his head, he allowed himself to drift off to a dreamless slumber.


End file.
